ST.  PAUL  AND  THE 
MYSTERY  RELIG 


tihvaxy  of t:he  t:heolo0ical  ^tminavy 

PRINCETON    .    NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

The   Author 


.T8fo 


ST.  PAUL    AND    THE 
MYSTERY  RELIGIONS 


BY 


JOHN  FRANKLIN  TROUPE,  M.  A. 


OCT   15  1964 


BOSTON:    THE   GORHAM   PRESS 

TORONTO:   THE   COPP    CLARK    CO.,   LIMITED 


Copyright,  I9i7,  by  John  Franklin  Troupe 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Made  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Gorham  Press,   Boston,   U.   S.   A. 


TO  MY  WIFE 


FOREWORD 

In  the  following  pages  I  have  endeavored  to  show- 
that  Saint  Paul  is  no  more  indebted  to  the  Mystery 
Religions,  for  the  support  which  he  lent  to  Christianity, 
than  any  man  is  indebted  to  any  other  man  because  he 
uses  the  language  which  they  both  have  in  common. 

I  have  endeavored  to  approach  the  subject  with  an 
open  and  unbiased  mind  so  that  the  conclusions  arrived 
at  may  be  regarded  as  the  result  which  the  facts  them- 
selves warrant,  and  not  the  result  of  prejudice. 

John  Franklin  Troupe,  M.  A. 
New  Park,  Pa. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.     Introduction  1 1 

II.     The  Mystery  Cults — Demeter,  Diony- 
sus, AND  Orphic  Cults 20 

III.  Cybele-Attis  Cult ^y 

IV.  Isis,  Osiris  and  Serapis  Cults 31 

V.  MiTHRA  Cult 36 

VI.  Hermetic  Mystery  Literature 38 

VII.     Stoicism 42 

viii.     A    Legitimate   Intrepretation    of    the 

Facts  Presented 45 

IX.     The  Possibility  of  Judaism  Being  In- 

fuenced  by  Hellenistic  Culture  49 

X.  Detailed  Relation  of  St.  Paul  to 
THE  Terminology  of  the  Mystery 
Religions    53 

XL     Apparent  Evidence  of  Double  Person- 
ality Passages 63 

XII.  The  Leading  Conceptions  of  St.  Paul's 
Thought  Are  Rooted  in  the  Old 
Testament 66 

XIII.  Baptismal  Rites  of  Pagan  Religions..     76 

XIV.  Sacrificial  Meals  in  Relation  to  the 

Mystery  Religions    80 

XV.  Conclusions    85 


ST.  PAUL  AND  THE  MYSTERY 
RELIGIONS 


ST.    PAUL    AND    THE 
MYSTERY  RELIGIONS 

I 

Introduction 

"^T^O  sum  up  all  things  in  Christ,  the  things  in  the 
X  heavens  and  the  things  upon  the  earth ;  in  him." 
Eph.  i :  10.  This  appears  to  be  St.  Paul's  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Creator's  allinclusive  plan.  Such  a  philoso- 
phy of  history  arouses  a  religious  enthusiasm,  which 
increases  in  intensity  as  the  search  for  religious  truth 
advances.  It  teaches  us,  that  St.  Paul  regarded 
Christianity,  not  as  an  isolated,  abstract  entity,  but  as 
the  absolute  and  final  phase  of  God's  dealing  with  his 
creatures  and  that  we  should  not  be  surprised  if  we 
find  in  it,  the  noblest  elements  of  Greecian  philosophy, 
the  highest  surviving  truths  of  other  religions,  the 
theological  fervor  of  the  Hebrews,  together  with  a 
unique  revelation.  The  origin  of  Pauline  Christianity 
cannot  be  attributed  to  a  mere  summing  up  of  these 
elements,  but  an  understanding  of  it  is  dependent  upon 
an  understanding  of  these  elements,  just  as  an 
appreciation  of  the  symphony  is  dependent  upon  an 
appreciation  of  the  individual  pieces  in  the  orchestra. 
Because  of  the  exceedingly  scanty  knowledge  of  the 
times  in  which  Christianity  took  its  rise,  and  because 
of  the  popular  idea  that  it  is  an  eternally  fixed  quantity 
of  doctrine,  devotion  and  discipline,  it  may  at  first 
appear  difficult  for  us  to  determine  whether  the  new 

II 


12        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

religion  was  at  the  outset  a  closed  revelation,  or 
whether  it  is  the  product  of  a  developing  process,  in- 
fluenced by  environmental  forces.  In  modem  times 
we  are  beginning  to  think  of  religion  in  terms  of  ex- 
perience. The  cloister  has  been  abandoned  forever  as 
the  place  to  cultivate  true  piety.  We  now  carry  our 
religion  into  the  market  places  with  us,  believing  that  it 
is  at  its  best  when  in  practice.  If  there  is  any  truth  in 
Jeremy  Taylor's  often  quoted  phrase,  the  child  is  the 
father  of  the  man,  then  certainly,  the  religious  struc- 
ture of  the  men  of  tomorrow  is  dependent  upon  the 
environmental  framework  of  the  children  of  today. 
And  any  faith  which  is  incapable  of  adjusting  itself  to 
the  urgent  needs  of  the  times,  is  not  to  be  considered  a 
part  of  that  Gospel,  of  which  Jesus  said,  "my  grace 
is  sufficient  for  thee." 

Notwithstanding,  many  are  disposed  to  foster  the 
claim  that  early  Christianity  was  entirely  free  from 
such  environmental  influence.  Such  an  attitude,  no 
doubt,  arises  out  of  the  commendable  desire  to  retain 
its  authority.  But  by  so  doing,  it  may  be  that  they 
are  snatching  Christianity  away  from  its  proper  rela- 
tions and  treating  it  as  an  intruder  into  the  divinely  de- 
creed course  of  human  history.  If  there  is  no  source 
of  inspiration  in  existence  today  from  which  we  hesi- 
tate to  draw,  in  behalf  of  Christianity,  may  it  not  be 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  primitive  Christianity  would 
gain  rather  than  lose,  if  it  is  discovered  that  St.  Paul 
was  wide  awake  to  all  phases  of  human  activity? 

From  this  point  of  view,  let  us  consider  the  possibil- 
ity of  St.  Paul  being  influenced  by  contact  with  other 
religions,  with  the  understanding  that  Christianity  shall 


Introduction  13 

not  bejess  esteemed  if  jlis  found  that  he  was  influenced 
by  such  contact,  nor  more  esteemed  if  it  is  found  that 
he  was  not  influenced  by  such  contact.  In  the  hght  of 
the  high  conception  which  Paul  had  of  the  new  faith,  it 
may  seem  diflicult  to  see  how  he  could  derive  anything 
from  contemporary  sources.  He  condemns  both  Pag- 
anism and  Judaism  and  pronounces  an  anathema  upon 
any  one  who  teaches  a  Christianity  other  than  his  own. 
"'But  though  we  or  an  angel  from  heaven,  should 
preach  unto  you  any  Gospel  other  than  that  which  we 
preached  unto  you,  let  him  be  anathema."  Gal.  i :  8.  In 
I.  Cor.  i :  27,,  he  harshly  criticises  Judaism  and  in  Gal. 
I  :  24,  he  observes  that  it  is  only  a  temporary  "tutor  to 
bring  us  unto  Christ."  The  philosophy  of  the  Greeks 
he  regards  as  Vain  deceit'  and  the  popular  religions  he 
declares  to  be  'senseless  idolatry'. 

Such  sweeping  condemnations,  however,  are  not 
more  than  should  be  expected  under  the  circumstances. 
All  criticism  must  necessarily  be  harsh.  All  contemp- 
orary religions  are  regarded  as  built  upon  a  fallacious 
principle,  consequently,  the  critic  does  not  pause  to 
dwell  upon  the  virtues  entangled  in  the  mass  of  alleged 
error.  But  it  is  not  more  than  fair  to  suppose  that  some 
valuable  truths  were  occasionally  found  and  sometimes 
even  absorbed,  perhaps,  by  the  new  faith.  It  seldom 
happens  that  the  victorious  debater  fails  to  learn  some- 
thing from  his  vanquished  opponent,  though  in  the 
heat  of  the  conflict  he  may  sternly  condemn  as  worth- 
less, all  his  opponent's  arguments.  It  may  be  that  the 
same  is  true  in  the  case  of  St.  Paul.  We  know  that  his 
merciless  criticism  of  Judaism  did  not  deter  him  from 
incorporating  into  Christianity  such  of  its  materials  as 


14        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

were  advantageous,  nor  did  his  opposition  to  the  Gen- 
tiles hinder  him  from  recognizing  that  it  was  possible 
for  them  to  please  God  by  following  the  dictates  of 
their  own  conscience.  Thus  it  appears,  that  opposition 
to  other  faiths  as  religious  systems,  did  not  hinder  him 
from  actually  appropriating  from  them  all  that  was 
useful  and  of  good  report.  - 

Paul  further  emphasizes  this  idea  in  his  assertion 
of  the  belief  that  Christianity  was  the  legitimate  heir 
to  all  previously  existing  good,  maintaining  that  the  en- 
tire course  of  past  history  was  preliminary  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  Christianity.  So  that  not  only  the  Old 
Testament,  which  he  praises  very  highly  as  an  histori- 
cal revelation,  but  also  anything  in  paganism,  which 
was  found  worthy  and  could  be  made  to  harmonize 
with  his  thinking  was  used  in  establishing  the  new 
faith;  for  example,  he  frequently  draws  illustrations 
from  the  pagan  games.  About  a  century  later,  Justin 
Martyr,  retained  his  high  esteem  for  Greek  philosophy 
after  his  conversion,  by  persuading  himself  that  Soc- 
rates and  other  Stoics  were  Christians  on  the  ground 
that  they  were  enlightened  by  the  eternal  Logos,  who 
was  later  more  fully  revealed  in  the  person  of  Christ. 

Paul  believed  himself  to  be  divinely  guided  in  estab- 
lishing the  new  religion.  He  recognized  that  Judaism, 
as  an  historical  revelation,  contributed  certain  items  to 
the  new  faith,  but  he  did  not  regard  it  as  furnishing  a 
complete  equipment  for  Christianity.  Even  Christ 
himself  did  not  complete  the  equipment.  Certain  links 
had  to  be  supplied  by  the  believer's  own  experience,  in 
order  to  complete  the  chain  which  binds  us  back  to 
God.  **I  fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the  afflictions 


/ 


Introduction  15 

of  Christ,"  Col.  ii :  24.  This  he  set  out  to  do  by  virtue 
of  his  faith  in  Christ.  The  work  was  done,  of  course, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  its  result 
was  dependent  upon  immediate  experience,  deter- 
mined by  environment.  Since,  then,  Paul's  convic- 
tions consisted  in  a  revelation,  supplemented  by  the 
experience  of  actual  life,  and  since  these  experiences 
were,  to  some  extent,  at  least,  the  product  of  environ- 
mental forces,  we  must  guard  against  putting  into  the 
thoughts  of  the  Apostle,  the  views  of  the  later  cen-  '    / 

turies^_which  have  been  crystalized  into  static  quanti- 
ties. 

Sometimes  we  fail  to  recognize  that  Christianity 
arose  in  a  very  'religious  world.'  The  religious  in- 
fluences of  the  Roman  Empire  were  by  no  means  de- 
cadent. This  fact  would  not  only  have  a  tendency  to 
make  Paul  tolerate  influence  from  other  religions,  but 
such  influence  would  be  likely  to  manifest  itself  in  his 
life.  The  strength  of  Judaism  at  this  time  is  well 
known.  But  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  Gentiles 
were  any  less  influential.  Paganism  was  very  popular 
among  the  masses,  because  help  was  offered  them  from 
so  many  deities.  These  deities,  with  their  varieties  of 
doctrines  and  ceremonies,  were  designed  to  meet  all  the 
exigencies  of  the  worshipers.  Religion  was  not  con- 
fined to  the  few.  It  was  a  matter  of  common  concern. 
Poets  and  philosophers  made  it  the  theme  of  their  dis- 
cussions, and  even  the  structure  of  the  state  claimed  to 
be  reared  upon  a  religious  foundation.  The  very  cir- 
cumstances under  which  Paul  labored,  compelled  him 
to  be  brought  into  contact  with  these  contemporary 
faiths,  and  this  contact  was  so  close  and  so  long  con- 


"vi 


i6         St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

tinued,  that  it  is  at  once  suggestive  of  the  possibility  of 
Christianity  being  vitally  influenced  by  them.  Paul's 
activities  in  Syrian  Antioch,  Rome,  Ephesus  and  Cor- 
inth, remind  us  of  the  fact  that  in  its  plastic  infancy, 
the  new  faith  was  fostered  in  a  pagan  home. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  contemporary  reli- 
gions easily  succumbed  to  the  new  movement.  Facts 
seem  to  indicate  that  they  offered  strong  resistance. 
Just  as  the  Foreign  Mission  Fields  offer  strong  resist- 
ance to  the  acceptance  of  Christianity  to-day,  so  it  m.ust 
be  supposed  that  the  other  religions  opposed  it  in  tlie 
early  days.  The  pagan  deities  had  their  devoted  fol- 
lowers and  self-sacrificing  missionaries  as  well  as  Je- 
hovah had  his  chosen  people.  It  certainly  cannot 
be  said  that  there  wai  any  time  when  Christianity  was 
the  sole  possessor  of  the  field  during  the  first  century. 
On  the  contrary,  we  know  that  it  cultivated,  not  virgin 
soil,  but  soil  upon  which  had  already  been  established 
powerful  competitors.  And  since  St.  Paul  did  not  en- 
joy the  privilege  of  creating  anew  the  religious  data,  he 
was  compelled  to  graft  his  religion  onto  the  already 
existing  data.  The  religious  vocabulary  of  the  people 
labored  among,  had  already  been  very  well  developed. 
Paul,  doubtless  would  have  been  able  to  secure  con- 
verts to  the  new  faith  by  proclaiming  its  newness,  and 
superiority,  but  his  prospects  for  success  would  have 
\  been  slight  had  he  not  employed  the  religious  terml-- 
'^'V-Jiorogy  which  was  already  familiar  to  his  hearers,  in 
showing  them  that  however  novel  Christianity  might 
seem,  it  nevertheless  conserved  the  values  of  the  old 
faith. 
As  new  territory  was  entered  upon,  readjustments 


7^ 


Introduction  17 

had  to  be  made  to  meet  the  new  conditions.  At  first, 
the  Christians  observed  the  ceremonial  law.  But  Paul's 
demands  in  behalf  of  the  Gentiles,  soon  changed  this 
attitude. 

In  the  light  of  what  has  been  said,  it  seems  justifi- 
able to  infer  that  St.  Paul  was  at  least  liable  to  be  in- 
fiuenced  by  contact  with  other  religions.  This  fact 
does  not  in  any  way  deny  the  originality  of  Christian- 
ity, nor  does  it  discount  the  creative  activity  of  the 
Apostle  who  felt  himself  divinely  guided  in  developing 
it.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  overestimate  Paul's  im- 
portance in  establishing  our  faith,  but  it  must  he 
remembered  that  he  was  nolJiistorically.  uaconditioned. 

We  are  already  aware  of  Christianity's  relation  to 
Judaism,  but  its  relation  to  the  Mystery  Religions  is 
comparatively  a  new  field  of  investigation.  The  term. 
Mystery  Religions,  in  its  technical  sense,  is  applied  to 
a  type  of  faith  which  lays  emphasis  on  a  future  state  d^^  ^  \. 
.oi  bliss,  obtainable  by  worshiping  a  deity,  or  deities, 
who  themselves  have  triumphed  over  death,  and  con- 
sequently, are  able  to  give  a  similar  victory  to  their 
votaries.  These  religions  were  individualistic  rather 
than  national.  The  individual  attached  himself  directly 
to  the  diety  and  not  to  some  civic  group  or  order.  The 
Palistinian  Christians,  in  so  far  as  they  required  cir- 
cumcision of  the  Gentiles,  were  manifesting  the  na- 
tional ideal,  but  Paul,  in  making  personal  faith  in 
Christ,  the  only  requirement  for  salvation,  was  taking 
the  position  of  the  Mystery  Religions.  To  become 
enrolled  in  the  mysteries,  it  was  necessary  to  ex- 
perience certain  rites  of  initiation.  Plays,  represent- 
ing the  deities'  triumph  over  death,  and  pictorial  rep- 


i8        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

resentations  of  certain  things,  were  presented.  The 
proper  authority  would  explain  to  the  novice,  the  mys- 
tery of  these,  hence  the  term.  Mystery  Religions. 
Certain  rites  of  purification  had  to  be  observed  by  the 
one  to  be  initiated,  after  which  he  participated  in 
certain  other  rites  symbolizing  his  unity  with  the  deity, 
such  as  partaking  of  the  sacred  meal,  or  sleeping  in 
the  bed-chamber  of  the  temple.  The  votary  was  thus 
believed  to  experience  new  birth.  He  was  now  sup- 
posed to  be  a  god-man.  The  deity  dwelt  in  him  and 
controlled  his  life.  He  was  sure  to  share  the  triumph 
over  death  with  the  deity,  and  by  certain  ecstatic  expe- 
riences, even  in  this  world,  he  enjoyed  anticipations 
of  the  future  state  of  bliss. 

When  Christianity,  at  the  hands  of  Paul,  became  a 
religion  of  personal  faith  in  the  crucified  and  risen 
divine  saviour,  belief  in  whom,  secured  eternal  life,  it 
was  meeting  the  same  sort  of  need  which  the  Mystery 
Religions  were  designed  to  meet.  Consequently,  it  is 
at  least  only  fair  to  ask,  whether  Pauline  Christianity 
was  not  influenced  by  the  Mystery  Religions,  owing  to 
its  contact  with  a  world  which  was  already  endeavoring 
to  work  out  a  religious  destination  along  these  lines. 
Some  modern  scholars  respond  to  this  question  with  a 
decided  negative.  Schweitzer  and  Clemen  for  example, 
maintain  that  in  the  first  century  A.  D.,  the  Mystery 
Religions  were  not  widely  enough  scattered  through 
the  Mediterranean  world,  and  in  so  far  as  they  did 
exist,  they  were  not  at  this  early  period  marked  with 
the  characteristics  which  later  caused  them  to  bear 
such  striking  resemblance  to  Christianity.  Other 
modern  investigators,  such  as  Reitzenstein  and  Diet- 


Introduction  19 

rich,  believe  that  these  Mystery  cults  had  a  wide  dis- 
semination in  pre-Christian  times  and  that  in  the  first 
century  A.  D.,  they  already  possessed  the  features 
which  marked  their  likeness  to  Christianity.  In  the 
light  of  these  two  opposing  views,  we  will  endeavor  to 
ascertain :  how  widely  the  Mystery  Religions  were 
disseminated  in  the  first  century  A.  D.,  and  what  were 
their  characteristics  at  this  time. 


II 

The  Mystery  Cults — Demeter,  Dionysus  and  Orphic 

Cults 

WE  will  consider  successively:  the  Demeter, 
Dionysus  and  Orphic  cults  in  Greece ;  the  Cy- 
bele-Attis  cult  in  Phrygia ;  the  Isis,  Osiris  and  Serapis 
cults  in  Egypt;  the  Mithra  cult  in  Persia;  the  Her- 
metic Mystery  literature  and  Stoicism.  The  Eleusi- 
nian  Mysteries  are  associated  with  the  goddess  De- 
meter whose  name  was  explained  at  a  very  early  date 
as  Ge-meter,  'mother  earth.'  She  was  the  goddess  of 
the  fertile  soil,  and  was  associated  with  the  under 
world  and  the  abode  of  the  unburied  dead.  She  was 
the  mother  of  Proserpine,  the  queen  of  Hades,  whom 
Pluto  carried  away  to  the  gloomy  realms.  The  worship 
of  this  goddess  is  mentioned  by  Greek  writers  before  the 
beginning  of  our  era.  In  a  myth  which  forms  the  sub- 
ject matter  of  a  Homeric  hymn  to  Demeter,  we  are  told 
how  the  goddess  taught  the  princess  of  Eleusis  the 
rites  of  her  cult  before  she  ascended  to  Mount  Olym- 
pus, forbidding  the  sacred  mysteries  to  be  divulged: 
"Blessed  is  that  man  of  dwellers  on  the  earth,  who  has 
seen  these  things !  but  he  who  dies  without  initiation 
and  participation  in  these  rites,  in  the  dark  gloom 
below  will  not  have  so  happy  a  lot"  (Moore's  Hist,  of 
Rels.   p.   450).     Those   who   were   initiated   received 

20 


The  Mystery  Cults  21 

blessed  life  beyond  the  tomb.  The  content  of  the 
hymn  makes  it  certain  that  the  round  of  the  assurance 
was  the  deliverance  of  Kore  from  Hades,  which  is  the 
subject  of  the  myth.  When  Eleusis  was  annexed  to 
Attica  in  the  seventh  century,  the  mysteries  became 
a  part  of  the  established  religion,  and  when  Athens 
became  the  center  of  Greek  life,  the  Eleusinian  mys- 
teries became  a  panhellenic  institution.  Men,  women 
and  even  slaves  were  eligible. 

In  the  fourth  century  B.  C,  Herodotus  mentions  the 
popularity  of  the  powerful  Demeter  and  the  number 
of  persons  initiated  into  her  mysteries,  (viii  65).  Cic- 
ero remarks  that  the  most  distant  nations  are  initiated 
into  the  sacred  and  most  august  Eleusinia.  He  also 
says :  "Much  that  is  excellent  and  divine  does  Athens 
seem  to  me  to  have  produced  and  added  to  our  life, 
but  nothing  better  than  those  mysteries  by  which  we 
are  formed  and  moulded  from  a  rude  and  savage  life 
into  humanity;  and  indeed  in  the  mysteries  we  per- 
ceive the  real  principles  of  life  and  learn  not  only  to 
live  happily  but  to  die  with  a  fairer  hope."  (The  Bib- 
lical World,  Jan.  1914). 

The  first  step  for  one  to  take  who  wished  to  become 
initiated  into  the  mysteries,  was  to  apply  privately  to 
one  of  the  families  in  charge  of  the  ceremonies.  He 
was  then  admitted  into  the  first  stage  of  the  rites,  which 
was  similar  to  purification  from  blood  guilt.  The  next 
step  consisted  in  initiation  into  the  Lesser  Mysteries 
which  took  place  in  February.  The  Great  Mysteries 
came  in  the  following  September.  The  participants 
gathered  in  the  city  of  Athens.  On  the  sixteenth  of 
September  they  went  to  the  sea  and  took  a  bath,  hence 


22         St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

the  phrase,  *To  the  Sea  O  Mystea.'  The  following 
days  were  spent  in  Athens.  On  the  nineteenth  of  the 
month,  the  entire  company  robed  in  white,  set  out  for 
Eleusia  by  the  sacred  street,  carrying  the  image  of, 
and  invoking  the  god  lakchos  (Dionusus).  The  pro- 
gress of  the  procession  was  slow  because  of  the 
numbers  and  because  of  the  sacredness.  When  the 
company  arrived  at  the  bridge  spanning  the  Kephissos, 
a  signal  was  given  for  an  outburst  of  slanderous  lan- 
guage. Every  one  took  occasion  to  relieve  his  mind 
of  any  grudge  he  might  have  against  any  citizen  or 
official,  by  a  free  and  unscrupulous  loosening  of  the 
tongue.  The  ceremonies  at  Eleusia  continued  two  or 
three  days.  The  principle  ceremonies  took  place  with- 
in the  great  oblong  hall,  and  none  except  those  who 
had  participated  in  the  Lesser  Mysteries  were  admit- 
ted. The  secrets  of  what  took  place  within  these  walls 
were  so  well  kept,  that  we  know  little  of  what  really 
happened.  But  we  know  it  was  meant  for  impression 
rather  than  instruction.  Aristotle  says :  "The  initiated 
do  not  learn  what  they  must  do,  but  feel  certain  emo- 
tions and  are  put  in  a  certain  suitable  frame  of  mind." 
It  is  believed  by  Professor  Moore  that  at  these  cer- 
emonies behind  closed  doors,  scenes  from  the  myth  of 
Demeter  were  enacted,  also  the  rape  of  Prosepine  and 
her  return  to  the  earth,  just  as  took  place  in  the  meet- 
ings of  the  public  cults.  Everything  was  of  such  a 
nature  as  to  excite  emotion  and  endeavor  to  lend  real- 
ity to  the  unseen.  There  was  still  a  higher  degree  for 
those  who  had  attained  unto  it.  This  degree  could 
not  be  received  in  less  time  than  a  year  from,  the  ini- 
tiation into  the  Lesser  Mysteries.    To  those  receiving 


The  Mystery  Cults  23 

it,  were  shown  the  contents  of  the  sacred  ark,  which, 
according  to  some  interpretations  of  the  myth,  the  god- 
dess employed  in  estabUshing  the  mysteries.  These 
relics  always  excited  the  greatest  awe  and  were  ven- 
erated as  were  the  relics  of  the  Christian  church  in 
the  Middle  Ages.  A  mystery  play  was  performed,  at 
which  time  the  hierophant  explained  the  significance 
of  the  relics. 

There  were  also  rites  of  a  sacramental  character. 
One  of  these  was  the  partaking  of  the  Kv/ceayv, 
a  gruel,  which,  it  was  believed,  Demeter  took  after 
mourning  for  her  daughter  nine  days.  It  was  made  of 
barley-groats,  water  and  pennyroyal  leaves  rubbed  fine. 
Clement  of  Alexandria  reports  other  sacramental  rites 
as  indicated  in  the  pass  word  of  the  Eleusinian  Myster- 
ies :  *T  fasted,  I  drank  the  gruel,  I  took  from  the  ark, 
and  having  tasted,  I  put  it  away  in  the  basket,  and  from 
the  basket  into  the  ark."     (See  Moore's  Hist,  of  Rels. 

p.  457). 

The  popularity  of  this  cult  is  also  evidenced  by  the 

facts  that  in  21  B.  C,  Augustus  was  initiated  into  its 
mysteries  and  about  the  middle  of  the  first  century  A. 
D.,  Claudius,  desired  to  transfer  the  Eleusinia  to 
Rome;  in  125  A.  D.,  Hadrian  was  initiated  into  the 
first  degree,  and  in  129  A.  D.,  into  the  third  degree. 

The  first  assurance  of  immortality  which  the  Mys- 
tery Religions  promised,  made  them  popular  among  the 
noblest  souls  of  Greece  as  well  as  the  common  people. 
Pindar  says :  "Blessed  he  who  having  seen  them,  passes 
beneath  the  hollow  earth;  he  knows  the  end  of  life  and 
knows  its  God-given  origin."  Also  Sophocles :  "O 
thrice-blessed  these  mortals,  who  having  beheld  these 


24         St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

mysteries,  descended  to  Hades;  to  them  alone  it  is 
given  there  to  Hve;  for  the  rest  all  evils  are  there." 
(See  Lobeck's  Aglaophamus,  vol.  i,  p.  69.)  From  these 
quotations  it  appears  clear  that  salvation  depended 
upon  initiation  into  the  mysteries.  At  first  there  is  little 
intimation  that  moral  defects,  so  long  as  they  did  not 
imply  religious  defilement,  excluded  from  the  cult  or 
its  salvation.  But  the  ridicule  of  thinkers  like  Hericli- 
tus  against  the  superstition  that  physical  purification 
can  purify  the  soul  of  moral  defilement,  finally  led  to 
the  conception  that  "Purity  is  holy  mindedness." 

From  a  poem  of  the  second  century,  which  is  as- 
cribed to  Theocritus,"  we  learn  that  even  children  were 
initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  Dyonysus.  The  poem 
referred  to,  is  written  in  honor  of  a  nine  year  old  boy, 
who  was  admitted  to  the  cult  by  virtue  of  the  piety  of 
his  father.  "To  the  children  of  pious  fathers  belong 
the  good  things,  rather  than  to  those  that  come  of  im- 
pious fathers,"  (Lobeck's  Aglaophamus,  vol.  i,  p. 
586).  Compare  this  with  Paul's  belief  regarding  the 
sanctity  of  children  as  expressed  in  I  Cor.  vii :  14: 
"For  the  unbelieving  husband  is  sanctified  in  the  wife, 
and  the  unbelieving  wife  is  sanctified  in  the  brother: 
Else  were  your  children  unclean." 

Demeter  and  Dyonysus  were  not  the  only  deities, 
whose  names  were  associated  with  the  more  distinct- 
ively Greek  mysteries.  Proclus,  remarks  that  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Orphic  mysteries  was  seen  on  every  hand 
as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  B.  C.  As 
a  means  of  individual  salvation,  Orphism  had  spread 
far  and  wide,  and  its  converts  gathered  together  in 
societies  not  unlike  Christian  churches.     Rites  of  ini- 


The  Mystery  Cults  25 

tiation  were  performed  which  took  the  form  of  puri- 
fication, and  sacred  writings  existed,  claiming  divine 
inspiration.  A  rule  of  practice  was  laid  down  regu- 
lating diet,  dress  and  conduct.  The  Orphic  gospel 
aroused  the  consciousness  of  a  super-natural  good,  an 
eternal  life,  and  a  foreshadowing  of  it  here  and  now. 
It  demanded  personal  faith  and  set  forth  a  plan  of  sal- 
vation. By  initiation  into  its  mysteries,  it  was 
believed  that  the  old  corrupt  man  was  put  oflF  and  the 
resulting  new  creature  was  a  partaker  of  divine  life. 
"O  blessed  and  happy  one,  thou  hast  put  off  thy 
mortality  and  hast  become  divine." 

Plato,  in  one  of  his  speculations  regarding  the  des- 
tiny of  the  soul  (Phaedo,  69  C),  speaks  of  "those  who 
established  our  mysteries"  as  affirming  in  parables 
"that  whosoever  comes  to  Hades  uninitiated  and  pro- 
fane will  lie  in  the  mire :  while  he  that  has  been  puri- 
fied and  initiated  shall  dwell  with  the  gods.  For  'the 
thyrsus-bearers  (vapdT]KO(^6poi)  are  many,'  as  they 
say  in  the  mysteries,  'but  the  inspired  (/3a/c%ot)  few'." 
"This  passage  is  interpreted  by  many  as  referring  to 
Orphism.  Kennedy  thinks  it  is  quite  possible  that 
Orphism  had  developed  a  form  of  ascetic  life  in- 
dependent of  its  associations  with  the  religion  of  Di- 
onysus. But  from  this  time  forth,  it  at  least  received 
new  em.phasis.  Purity  was  insisted  upon  in  order  to 
set  free  from  the  cycle  of  generation  (kvk\o<;  tt}?  yev^ 
ecr£&)?)  The  man  who  is  fully  initiated  into  the  Orphic 
rites  becomes  oa-i(o6ei^.  What  this  meant  can  be  in- 
ferred from  the  mystic  formula  of  the  Compagno  tab- 
let, (See  Kennedy  p.  15).  In  answer  to  the  confession 
of  the  mystic:    "Out  of  the  pure  I  come. .  .For  I  also 


26         St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

avow  me  that  I  am  of  your  blessed  race. .  .1  have  flown 
out  of  the  sorrowful  weary  wheel... I  have  passed 
with  eager  feet  from  the  circle  desired."  The  assurance 
is  given:  "Happy  and  blessed  one,  thou  shalt  be  god 
instead  of  mortal."  This  emphasis  on  purity  made  an 
ever-widening  appeal,  and  soon  had  the  effect  of 
making  Orphism  one  of  the  most  impressive  and  in- 
fluential of  the  Hellenic  religions. 


Ill 

Cybele-Attis  Cult 

BUT  these  more  distinctively  Greek  mysteries  were 
from  time  to  time  supplemented  by  similar  reli- 
gions coming  in  from  the  Orient.  The  national  reli- 
gions of  the  old  type  gradually  disappeared.  The  old 
gods  were  concerned  with  the  protection  of  the  state 
and  the  things  of  this  world  but  when  the  souls  of  men 
were  aroused  to  a  yearning  after  a  higher  good,  the 
new  gods  were  worshiped,  because  they  appealed  to 
the  individual.  With  the  downfall  of  the  Greek  and 
Roman  political  powers,  men  ceased  looking  for  a  god 
who  could  save  a  nation  and  began  to  look  for  one  who 
could  save  the  individual.  The  result  was  a  vigorous 
struggle  for  supremacy  on  the  part  of  the  various  mys- 
tery cults,  in  which  the  Oriental  Mystery  cults  played 
a  large  part. 

Such  religions,  of  course,  were  by  no  means  a  new 
creation  of  the  Greeko-Roman  world.  The  redeemer- 
gods  worshiped  in  this  period  had  already  existed  in 
some  part  of  the  ancient  world.  They  offered  a  type  of 
religion  not  dissimilar  in  fundamental  characteristics 
to  the  ancient  mysteries  of  Greece,  and  consequently, 
by  the  beginning  of  our  era,  they  had  become  popular, 
not  only  throughout  Mediterranean  lands,  but  also  in 
Greece  and  Rome.    Pindar  mentions  the  Phrygian  god- 

27 


28         St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

dess  Cybele,  as  known  among  the  Greeks  as  early  as 
the  sixth  century  B.  C.  Attis,  her  consort,  had  a  pri- 
vate cult  in  Greece  as  early  as  the  fourth  century  B. 
C.  Livy,  who  wrote  in  the  time  of  Augustus,  tells  us 
that  Cybele  worship  was  formally  introduced  into 
Rome  in  204  B.  C.,  to  prevent  the  Carthaginians  from 
invading  the  city.  The  Romans  were  successful  and 
consequently,  Cybele  worship  was  officially  recognized. 
The  worship  of  Attis  soon  followed,  for  by  the  middle 
of  the  first  century  we  find  devotees  of  Cybele  and  At- 
tis celebrating  an  annual  festival,  under  official  sanc- 
tion, at  the  time  of  the,  vernal  equinox.  The  worship- 
ers mourned  for  the  dead  god  and  rejoiced  at  his 
resurrection.  Various  rites  were  perfomed,  symbol- 
izing union  with  the  deity,  whose  career  was  portray- 
ed in  a  mystery  play.  The  date  of  the  festival,  the 
vernal  equinox,  makes  it  plain  that  the  story  of  Attis 
is  a  primitive  myth  of  the  death  and  rebirth  of  nature. 
The  rites  symbolized  the  recalling  to  life  of  nature, 
after  the  winter's  death.  But  it  is  the  opinion  of  Reit- 
zenstein  and  others,  that  the  worshipers  found  more, 
especially  in  the  resurrection  of  Attis,  convincing  dem- 
onstration of  the  life  after  death,  to  which  the  goddess 
could  raise  them  as  she  raised  Atfis.  By  entering,  soul 
and  body  into  the  tragedy  of  the  god,  and  inflicting  the 
same  wounds  which  he  suffered,  in  a  word,  by  becom- 
ing Attis  in  passion,  they  became  sharers  of  his  im- 
mortality. Maternus  speaks  of  the  night  of  mourning 
over  the  god ;  then  a  light  is  brought  in,  and  the  hps  of 
the  company  being  anointed  they  are  addressed  as  fol- 


Cybele-Attis  Cult  29 

lows :  "Be  of  good  courage  because  the  god  is  saved, 
To  you  also  shall  be  salvation  from  woes."  (Biblical 
World,  Jan.,  1914). 

The  Syrian  Adonis  was  the  rival  of  Attis,  and  fos- 
tered practically  the  same  religious  practices.  This 
Adonis  religion  was  still  thriving  when  Paul  was 
preaching  in  Syria  and  Cilicia,  his  message  of  the  cru- 
cified and  risen  Reedemer  of  Christianity.  The  two 
chief  centers  of  Adonis  worship  were  Byblos  in  Syria, 
and  Paphos  in  Cyprus,  and  it  can  certainly  be  assumed 
that  many  members  of  Paul's  Gentile  church  were 
acquainted  with  the  mystic  drama  describing  the  death 
and  resurrection  of  Adonis,  and  the  religious  sancti- 
fication  which  that  faith  was  supposed  to  give  to  its 
votaries. 

Another  rite  which  was  associated  with  the  worship 
of  the  Magna  Mater  after  the  middle  of  the  first  cen- 
tury (See  Cumont's  Oriental  Religions,  p.  66),  was 
that  of  the  taurobolium.  The  oldest  known  inscription 
connected  with  the  taurobolium  was  found  at  Lyons 
and  is  dated  160  A.  D.  During  the  course  of  con- 
structing the  present  church  of  St.  Peter  in  Rome, 
many  taurobolium  altars  of  the  fourth  century  were 
unearthed,  dating  from  295  to  390  A.  D.  But  in  Gaul, 
G.  A.  Moore  claims,  evidence  has  been  iound  which 
indicates  that  the  rites  existed  at  a  very  much  earlier 
time.  Prudentius,  in  describing  the  rite  says,  the  one 
to  be  initiated  goes  into  a  pit  previously  provided  with 
a  covering  of  planks  with  many  holes  in  them.  A  steer 
is  then  killed,  whose  warm  blood  streams  through  the 
holes  in  the  planks  upon  the  one  beneath.  "Through 
the  thousand  crevices  in  the  wood,  the  bloody  dew  runs 


30        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

down  into  the  pit.  The  neophite  receives  the  falling 
drops  on  his  head,  clothes  and  body.  He  leans  back- 
ward to  have  his  cheeks,  his  ears,  his  lips  and  his  nos- 
trils wetted ;  he  pours  the  liquid  over  his  eyes  and  does 
not  even  spare  his  palate,  for  he  moistens  his  tongue 
with  blood  and  drinks  it  eagerly."  Peristeph.,  loii  f. 
Upon  coming  forth  from  the  pit,  dripping  with  blood, 
the  initiate  was  congratulated  by  his  friends  and  called 
a  new  man,  one  who  was  "born  again."  Thus  clearly 
showing  that  he  was  believed  to  possess  divine  life. 
Although  this  ceremony  was  observed  in  the  mysteries 
of  Cybele  at  Rome,  the  origin  is  as  yet  shrouded  in 
obscurity.  We  must  be  content  to  rest  in  the  result  of 
Cumont's  investigations,  which  show  that  it  was 
observed  in  Rome  soon  after  the  middle  of  the  first 
century. 


IV 
Isis,  Osiris  and  Serapis  Cults 

ONE  of  the  best  known  facts  in  the  history  of  reli- 
gion is  the  fact  of  the  wide-spread  popularity  of 
the  Isis-Osiris-Serapis  cults  in  the  Hellenistic  world. 
Isis  and  Osiris  were  familiar  figures  in  the  religion  of 
ancient  Egypt.  The  name  of  Serapis,  which  absorbs 
that  of  Isis  was  introduced  in  the  third  century,  B.  C. 
by  Ptolmy  I,  when  this  cult  was  virtually  made  the 
official  religion  of  Hellenistic-Egypt. 

Herodotus,  no  doubt  could  have  furnished  us  with 
much  information  regarding  the  Eg)'ptian  mysteries, 
if  he  had  not  been  so  loyally  devoted  to  the  Mystery 
Religions  and  consequently  hesitant  about  divulging 
their  secrets.  Notwithstanding,  he  occasionally  tells 
us  something  interesting.  Concerning  the  mysteries  at 
Sais,  he  says :  "In  the  sacred  precinct  of  Minerva 
(who  corresponds  to  Isis)  behind  the  chapel  and  join- 
ing the  whole  of  the  wall  is  the  tomb  of  one  whose 
name  I  consider  it  impious  to  divulge  on  this  occasion. 
And  in  the  inclosure  stand  large  stone  obolisks,  and 
there  is  a  lake  near,  ornamented  with  stone  margin, 
formed  in  a  circle,  and  in  size  as  appeared  to  me  much 
the  same  as  that  at  Delos,  which  is  called  the  circular. 
In  this  lake  they  perform  by  night  the  representation 
of  that  persons  adventures  vrhich  they  call    fiva-rrjoia, 

31 


32         St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

"Mysteries."  On  these  matters,  however,  though  ac- 
curately acquainted  with  the  particulars  of  them,  I 
must  observe  a  discrete  silence." 

This  deity,  whose  rites  Herodotus  regards  as  so  sa- 
cred, is  of  course,  the  dying  and  rising  Osiris.  He  also 
says  of  Isis,  that  the  second  most  important  of  the 
Egyptian  festivals  was  held  in  her  honor  in  the  city  of 
Busiris.  "All  the  men  and  women  to  the  number  of 
many  miriads  beat  themselves  after  the  sacrifice;  but 
for  whom  they  beat  themselves  it  would  be  impious 
for  me  to  divulge."  The  deity  referred  to  is  again 
Osiris. 

There  is  abundant  evidence  of  the  dissemination  of 
this  religion  outside  of  Egypt  in  pre-Christian  times. 
Diodorus  in  his  History  of  Sicily  cites  an  inscription 
from  a  tomb  from  Isis  and  Osiris  at  Nysa  in  Arabia, 
and  similar  inscriptions  have  been  found  at  los.  About 
the  year  29  B.  C,  Tibullus,  who  had  then  abandoned 
his  military  pursuits  on  account  of  illness,  writes  from 
Corcyra,  to  Delia,  his  sweetheart,  in  Rome :  "What 
does  your  Isis  for  you  now,  Delia?  What  avail  me 
those  brazen  sistra  of  hers  so  often  shaken  by  your 
hand?  Or  what  am  I  the  better  for  remembering  that 
while  you  were  pursuing  her  rites  you  bathed  purely 
and  lay  alone  in  a  pure  bed  (signifying  marriage  union 
with  the  deity)  ?  Now,  now,  goddess,  help  me,  for 
that  man  may  be  healed  by  thee  is  proved  by  many  a 
picture  in  thy  temples."  See  The  Biblical  World, 
Jan.,  1914. 

In  a  city  ordinance  of  Pozzuoli  in  105  B.  C.  the  men- 
tion of  a  Serapaeum  is  evidence  that  the  cult  of  Sera- 
pis  had  also  found  its  way  to   Italy  at  an   early  date. 


Isis,  Orisis  and  Serapis  Cults  33 

Thus,  the  Egyptian  Mystery  Religions  spread  to  Italy 
in  spite  of  opposition,  which  was  largely  due  to 
Rome's  jealousy  to  Alexandria.  Persecutions  were 
launched  against  this  religion,  as  the  records  show,  in 
59,  58,  53,  48  B.  C.  and  19  A.  D.  But  like  Christianity, 
a  century  later,  it  seemed  only  to  thrive  the  more  under 
Roman  persecution. 

Likewise  in  the  East,  'Egyptian  mysteries  spread 
rapidly,  from  the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  B. 
C.  The  worship  of  Isis  and  Serapis  was  established 
at  Athens  in  the  time  of  Ptolmy  Soter.  The  temple  of 
Serapis  stood  at  the  foot  of  the  Acropolis.  In  and 
about  Levant,  Isis  and  Serapis  worship  enjoyed  an 
almost  undisturbed  prosperity  for  a  period  of  three 
hundred  years  before  Paul  appeared  on  the  scene. 

The  character  of  the  Egyptian  mysteries  is  prac- 
tically the  same  as  that  of  the  Cybele-Attis  cult.  The 
story  of  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Osiris  and  the 
significance  for  the  believer's  life  are  essentially  the 
same  as  in  the  case  of  the  other  mystery  gods.  Here 
vv^e  also  find  a  mother  goddess  personifying  the  source 
of  life,  and  her  consort  impersonates  the  hope  of  tri- 
umph in  the  ever-present  human  struggle  of  life  over 
death.  Plutarch,  the  Greek  interpreter  of  the  Isis-Os- 
iris  religion,  and  who  wrote  about  the  same  time  as 
John  wrote  his  gospel  interpreting  Christianity  to  the 
Greeks,  says:  "She  is  the  female  principle  of  nature 
and  that  which  is  capable  of  receiving  all  generation  in 
virtue  of  which  she  is  styled  by  Plato  'nurse'  and  'all- 
receiving,'  but  by  people  in  general  she  is  called  "one 
of  numberless  names,"  because  she  is  converted  by  the 


34        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

logos  (that  is,  Osiris,  who  is  identified  with  the  Logos, 
the  Word)  into  and  receives  all  appearances  and 
forms." 

According  to  Plutarch,  Osiris,  in  his  Logos-f  tinction, 
created  the  world  and  all  it  contains.  He  interprets  the 
mourning  for  Osiris  and  his  resurrection  as  symbolic 
of  the  death  and  revival  of  nature  but  he  also  sees  in 
his  triumph  something  which  is  spiritual,  may  we  say, 
and  cosmic.  To  use  his  own  words :  "But  the  avenger 
of  Osiris  (that  is,  Isis)  .  .  .did  not  forget  the  contests 
and  struggles  she  had  gone  through,  nor  yet  her  own 
wanderings,  nor  did  she  suffer  oblivion  and  silence  to 
envelope  her  many  deeds  of  wisdom,  many  fetes  of 
courage,  but  by  intermingling  in  the  most  sacred 
ceremonies,  images,  hints,  and  representations  of  her 
sufferings  of  yore,  she  concentrated  at  one  and  the 
same  time  both  lessons  of  piety  and  consolation  for 
men  and  women  when  overtaken  by  misfortune.  And 
she,  together  with  Osiris,  having  been  translated  from 
the  rank  of  good  spirits  (de  mons)  up  to  that  of  gods 
and  of  spirits  everywhere,  both  in  regions  above  the 
earth  and  in  those  under  ground,  possessing  the 
supreme  power,"  (Is.  and  Os.  xxviii). 

Plutarch  may  have  been  the  first  to  explain  the 
significance  of  Isis-Osiris  worship  in  these  particular 
terms,  but  for  many  generations  the  devotees  of  these 
deities  had  observed  these  sacred  rites  and  derived 
consolation  from  the  memory  of  their  sufferings,  and 
worshiped  them  with  hearts  full  of  appreciation.  This 
appears  to  be  the  state  of  affairs  in  many  communities 
before  Paul  appeared  proclaiming  his  message  of  the 
suffering   Redeemer   who  "was   openly  set   forth  cru- 


Isis,  Orisis  and  Serapis  Cults  35 

cified,"  Gal.  iii :  i ;  but  who,  on  account  of  his  humility 
and  self-sacrifice  for  the  well-being  of  humanity  was 
exalted  to  his  heavenly  reward  and  honored  with  an 
authority  before  whom,  ''every  knee  should  bow  of 
things  in  heaven  and  things  on  earth  and  things  under 
the  earth,"  Phil,  ii :  10. 


V. 

Mithra  Cult 

LET  us  draw  another  illustration  from  the  Persian 
god,  Mithras.  The  worship  of  Mithras  first  came 
to  the  attention  of  the  Romans  through  Cicilian  pirates 
whom  Pompey  suppressed  in  67  B.  C.  In  the  follov/- 
ing  year,  the  conquest  of  the  kingdom  of  Mithradates 
carried  Roman  arms  into  regions  where  Mithras  was 
worshiped.  In  the  ensuing  reorganization  some  of 
these  provinces  were  constituted  Roman  provinces. 
But  it  was  not  at  this  particular  time  that  Mithras  wor- 
ship was  brought  to  Rome.  It  was  not  until  the  first 
century  after  Christ  that  his  mysteries  apepar  in  the 
West.  The  oldest  Mithrsea  in  Rome  date  from  the 
reigns  of  Trajan  and  Hadrian.  When  it  first  emerges 
into  our  observation,  this  religion  is  fully  developed, 
but  it  had  had  a  long  history  before  appearing  in  Eu- 
rope. The  Zoroastrian  religion  was  planted  in  Asia 
Minor  at  the  time  of  the  Persian  conquest,  600  B.  C. 
Here  it  took  firm  root,  particularly  in  Armenia,  Pon- 
tus  and  Cappadocia.  It  was  in  these  regions  according 
to  G.  F.  Moore,  that  the  Mythras  cult  became  the 
most  fully  developed.  The  cohorts  and  alse  raised  in 
Cappadocia  and  Pontis  brought  it  with  them  to  the 
South  and  West. 

There  were   several   degrees  in  the   Mithraic   mys- 
teries, the  rites  of  initiation  of  which  are  not  known  in 

36 


MiTHRA  Cult  37 

detail,  but  it  is  certain  that  these  degrees  and  their 
attendent  rites  were  connected  with  the  legend  of  the 
god,  and  part  of  the  object  of  the  initiation  was  to  v. 
unite  the  devotee  to  the  god,  who  would  prepare  for 
him  a  place  in  bliss.  Mihras  also  had  his  baptism  and 
his  'oblation  of  bread'  which  Moore  and  others  regard 
as  a  sacred  banquet,  the  representations  of  which  have 
come  down  to  us  on  monumental  remains.  In  these 
rites  the  Christian  Fathers  saw  a  diabolical  trans- 
formation of  the  Christian  sacraments.  The  baptism 
in  water  had  not  only  purification  of  body  for  its 
object,  but  removal  of  sins  as  well.  According'  to  a 
relief  published  a  few  years  ago,  bread  and  presumably 
wine  are  used  in  the  course  of  this  mystic  meal.  A 
tripod,  supporting  two  loaves  of  bread,  each  marked 
with  a  cross,  stands  before  the  participants.  One  of 
the  participants  holds  aloft  a  horn,  presumbly  of  wine, 
while  a  persa  offers  a  second  to  another  communicant, 
(see  The  Ope<i  Court,  vol.  xxii). 


VI 
Hermetic  Mystery  Literature 

WHEN  we  turn  to  the  Hermetic  Mystery  litera- 
ture we  find  a  highly  syncretistic  blending  of 
doctrine  and  ritual.  The  Corpus  Hermeticum  is  com- 
posed of  a  number  of  rather  incongruous  strata,  em- 
bodying notions  contained  in  the  Greek  philosophy  of 
the  religious  Stoic-Peripatetic  type,  remnants  of 
Egyptian  religion  and  liturgic  fragments  belonging  to 
the  Hellenized  Egyptian  communities,  all  of  which,  as 
Kennedy  says,  reflect  the  syncretistic  Mystery-cults 
faUing  between  300  B.  C.  and  300  A.  D.  The  Corpus 
Hermeticum,  Reitzenstein  believes,  was  compiled  about 
the  year  300  A.  D.  in  the  reign  of  Diocletian,  by  an 
Egyptian  priest.  It  consisted  of  eighteen  sacred  docu- 
ments designed  to  show  that  the  religion  of  Hellenized 
Egypt  was  the  same  as  that  practiced  throughout  the 
whole  Empire.  These  documents,  belonging  to  different 
periods  of  time  and  different  peoples,  are  so  arranged 
as  to  suit  the  figures  entering  into  the  dialog.  "Hermes, 
the  herald  of  Egyptian  religion,  is  summoned  by  the 
god  NoO?  the  Shepherd  of  men  (Poimandres),  to 
become  Savior  of  the  whole  world.  He  proclaims  the 
new  religion  to  his  two  disciples,  Asclepios,  son  of  the 
god,  Ptah,  and  his  own  son  Tat :  consecrates  them  at 
the  close,  to  be  prophets,  causing  them  to  be  born  of 

.^8 


Hermetic  Mystery  Literature  39 

God  and  united  with  Him,  and  then  ascends  again  to 
heaven.  The  two  prophets  preach  the  new  doctrine 
to  King  Ammon  who  adopts  it,  and  thus  the  Egyptian 
rehgion  was  founded,"  (See  Kennedy  p.  106).  The 
dialog  between  Hermes  and  his  son  Tat  on  the  subject 
of  regeneration  is  the  most  interesting  of  the  documents 
from  our  point  of  view.  Reitzenstein  prints  the  Greek 
text  of  this  dialog  in  Poimandres  pp.  339-348.  The 
gist  of  the  dialog  is  as  follows :  Hermes  is  reminded  by 
his  son  Tat,  that  he  at  one  time  told  him  that  no  one 
could  be  saved  (aooOrjvai^  without  regeneration 
(Trakiyyevea- io) .  Regeneration  can  only  be  obtained 
after  one  has  cut  one's  self  off  from  the  world.  Tat  has 
renounced  the  world,  and  beseeches  his  regenerate 
father  to  give  him  the  secret.  In  reply,  Tat  is  told  that 
this  must  be  a  communication  by  the  Divine  Will.  By 
the  mercy  of  God  he  is  now  granted  an  inward,  im- 
mortal vision,  he  passes  out  of  his  mortal  body,  into 
an  immortal  body.  The  entire  state  of  his  being  has 
been  changed;  Tat  can  no  longer  discern  his  new 
state  of  being  with  bodily  eyes.  He  becomes  conscious 
of  transformation  while  his  father,  Hermes,  speaks. 
He  is  now  freed  from  the  twelve  evil  propensities, 
which  are  exchanged  for  the  ten  powers  of  God.  In 
his  new  state  he  is  now  able  to  have  spiritual  visions, 
and  he  feels  that  he  is  one  with  the  elements.  His 
only  need  now  is  to  ascend  to  Ogdaos,  where  God 
dwells.  Tat  is  taught  by  his  father  to  repeat  the  hymn 
of  praise,  sung  by  the  Divine  powers  present  in  the 
regenerate  man.  Tat  now  declares :  "My  spirit  is 
illuminated  ...  To  Thee,  O  God,  author  of  my  new 
creation,    I,    Tat,    offer    spiritual    sacrifices  (Xo^i/ca? 


40         St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

^yj-ia?)  .  O  God  and  Father,  Thou  art  the  Lord,  Thou 
art  the  Spirit  (o  i/oO?) .  Accept  from  me  the  spiritual 
(sacrifices)  which  Thou  desirest."  Hermes  then  sums 
up  the  meaning  of  the  whole  experience  in  the  words : 
"In  the  spirit  thou  hast  come  to  know  thyself  and  our 
Father."  The  chief  result  of  this  mystical  experience 
seems  to  be  to  know  God.  This  is  characteristic 
throughout  the  Hermetic  literature. 

Reitzenstein  (H.  M.  R.  pp.  113,  114),  quotes  from 
the  closing  prayer  of  the  A0709  TeXeto?:  "We  give  to 
Thee  thanks,  most  High,  for  by  Thy  grace  we  receive 
this  light  of  knowledge  .  .  .  Having  been  saved  by  Thee 
we  rejoice  that  Thou  didst  show  thyself  to  us  wholly, 
that  Thou  didst  deify  (a7re^ea)a-a?)  us  in  our  mortal 
bodies  by  the  vision  of  Thyself."  Here  we  see  that 
the  knowledge  of  God  attained  through  regeneration, 
deifies.  Dietrich  (Eine  Mithrasliturgie  p.  12)  points 
out  a  similar  passage :  "Having  been  regenerated  by 
Thee  today,  out  of  so  many  thousands  called  to  be  im- 
mortal ( aTTaOavaTLo-deU  )  in  this  hour,  according  to 
the  purpose  of  the  most  graceous  God." 

Reitzenstein  believes  the  fundamental  strain  of  this 
highly  syncretistic  literature,  to  be  due  to  the  evolution 
of  ancient  Egyptian  religious  ideas.  To  this  has  been 
added  the  Stoic  idea  of  deification  of  the  elements,  to- 
gether with  certain  other  Hellenistic  myths,  especially 
that  of  the  Divine  "AvdpcoTTO';.  Cumont,  on  the  con- 
trary, (See  his  Oriental  Rels.  p.  233,  234,  note  41), 
says :  *T  believe  that  Reitzenstein  misunderstood  the 
facts  when  he  stated  {Wundererzahlungen,  iqo6,  p 
128) :  'Die  hermetische  Literatur  ist  im  zweiten  und 
drift  en  Jahrhundert  fur  alle  religios-interessierien  der 


Hermetic  Mystery  Literature  41 

allgemeine  Ausdruck  der  Frommigkeit  geworden' 
I  believe  that  Hermetism,  which  is  used  as  a  label  for 
doctrines  of  very  different  origin,  was  influenced  by 
*the  universal  spirit  of  devotion,'  and  was  not  its 
creator.  It  was  the  result  of  a  long  continued  effort 
to  reconcile  the  Egyptian  traditions  first  with  Chaldean 
astrology,  then  with  Greek  philosophy  and  became 
transformed  simultaneously  with  the  philosophy.  But 
this  subject  would  demand  extended  developement/' 
Kennedy  thinks  there  is  some  truth  in  each  of  these 
views.  He  believes,  however,  that  Reitzenstein  has 
overestimated  the  purely  Egyptian  element,  since  the 
Greek  cosmology  is  everywhere  present.  Yet  he 
believes  Reitzenstein  is  justified  in  speaking  of  definite 
religious  communities  in  Egypt,  which  grew  up  around 
devout  religious  leaders  such  as  the  Hermetic  literatur 
implies.  We  agree  with  Kennedy  that  there  is  some 
truth  in  both  Reitzenstein's  and  Cumont's  views. 


VII 
Stoicism 

BEFORE  proceeding  farther,  it  seems  necessary  to 
consider  the  religious  revival  associated  with  Stoi- 
cism. Defining  Stoicism  in  the  terms  of  Wendland,  as 
"that  phase  of  development  in  the  Stoic  school,  which 
had  become  highly  eclectic,  adopting  to  a  large  extent 
Platonic  conceptions  more  particularly  in  its  idea  of 
God."  At  the  time  the  Greco-Roman  world  was  fall- 
ing to  pieces,  Stoicism  contributed  much  to  satisfy 
popular  cravings,  which  were  making  towards  a  more 
or  less  vague  monotheism.  This  monotheologizing 
was  manifested  in  the  transforming  of  the  earlier  dei- 
ties, by  the  aid  of  the  allegorical  method,  into  attributes 
of  one  supreme  deity.  This  movement  in  Stoicism, 
through  the  influence  of  Oriental  teachers,  became 
associated  with  a  mysticism  of  great  influence.  One 
of  the  essential  features  of  the  transformation  process 
was  the  metamorphosis  of  the  elements  of  the  cosmos 
into  Divine  forces,  similar  to  the  element  worship  in 
Babylonia  and  Persia,  where  the  worship  of  the  starry 
heavens  constituted  an  important  feature  in  practical 
religion.  But  the  ancient  Chaldean  star-worship 
received  a  new  impulse  under  the  impulse  of  the 
Hellenized  Orientals,  particularly  at  the  hands  of  Posi- 

42 


Stoicism  43 

donius  the  eminent  Stoic  of  Syria.  He  was  probably 
the  greatest  of  the  Platonizing  Stoics.  He  united  the 
highly  intellectual  astral  worship  with  the  highest  emo- 
tions. He  regarded  the  reverent  contemplation  of  the 
heavens  as  culminating  in  mystic  ecstacy.  According 
to  Stoicism,  the  soul  is  a  fragment  to  the  cosmic  fires. 
Now,  since  like  is  attracted  by  like,  Posidonius  would 
say,  the  soul,  in  gazing  upon  the  heavens,  becomes  akin 
to  them.  He  cannot  rest  until  he  participates  in  the 
divinity  of  those  sparkling  beings  above.  This  ex- 
perience is  associated  closely  with  ethical  purity.  The 
influence  of  Posidonius  is  unmistakable  in  Hellenistic 
religious  thought,  and  Cumont  thinks  some  of  the  finest 
mystical  ideas  of  Philo  are  due  to  Posidonian  influence. 
The  influence  of  Posidonius  is  clearly  seen  in  the  pseudo- 
Aristotelian  document,  Trepl  koct^iov,  a  truly  religious 
meditation  upon  the  harmony  of  the  cosmos  in  God, 
from  whom,  and  through  whom,  all  has  its  being  (W. 
Capelle,  Neue  Jahrb.  f.  klass.  Altert.,  1905  529-568). 
Also  Plutarch,  Quaestiones  Plationicae  ii :  2,  "Now  the 
soul  (of  the  universe)  has  come  into  being  not  by  Him 
(yir  avrov)  but  actually  from  Him  (avr'  avrov)  and 
out  of  Him  (e^  avrov') »"  It  is  not  improbable  that 
Paul  is  employing  the  same  type  of  speech  in  such  a 
passage  as  I  Cor.  viii :  6 :  "One  God  the  Father,  from 
whom  (e'l  ov)  are  all  things  and  we  unto  Him,  and 
one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  through  whom  are  all  things 
and  we  through  Him;"  also  Colossians  i:  16  f :  "For 
in  him  were  all  things  created,  in  the  heavens  and  upon 
the  earth,  things  visible  and  things  invisible,  whether 
thrones  or  dominions  or  principalities  or  powers ;  all 


44         St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

,lhings  have  been  created  through  him,  and  unto  him; 
and  he  is  before  all  things,  and  in  him  all  things  con- 
sist," (See  Norden's  Agnostos  Theos,  pp.  239-254  for 
more  examples). 


VIII 

A   Legitimate  Interpretation   of  the  Facts  Presented 

SEEING  then,  the  yearning  for  communion  with 
God,  which  existed  in  St.  Paul's  environment,  let 
us  proceed  to  what  seems  to  be  the  natural  and  legiti- 
mate interpretation  of  the  facts.  At  the  outset,  let  us 
remember  that  at  the  present  time  it  is  the  fashion  to 
minimize  the  influence  of  the  synagogue  in  the  religious 
thought  of  the  first  centuries  of  our  era.  It  contributed 
most  postively  to  the  spread  of  the  Gospel,  though  the 
influence  of  the  Mystery  Religions  can  also  not  be 
denied.  Prominent  among  the  elements  which  enter 
into  the  experience  of  Paul,  and  which  are  quite  com- 
monly called  mystical,  are  those  which  he  himself 
expresses  in  such  phrases  as  "Crucified  with  Christ," 
"Risen  with  Christ,"  "Joined  to  the  Lord,"  "Baptised 
into  his  death,"  etc.,  together  with  certain  visions  and 
revelations,  particularly  the  one  of  2  Cor.  xii :  iff.  Is 
it  necessary  to  attribute  such  spiritual  phenomena  to 
the  influence  of  the  Mystery  Religions?  Possibly  it 
is  not  necessary  to  identify  them  with  any  previously 
existing  system,  for  wherever  religious  experience 
exercises  an  intense  control  over  personality,  such 
spiritual  phenomena  come  to  light.  But  since  it  is 
commonly  possible  to  trace  such  an  experience  as  in- 
dicated in  2  Cor.  xii  to  some  environmental  influence, 

-.    45 


46        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

in  the  case  of  St.  Paul  we  would  be  committing  a  gross 
injustice  if  we  neglected  considering  his  Judaistic 
environment,  his  ancestral  faith.  Reitzenstein  (H.  M. 
R.  p  199),  says :  "Paul  was  a  mystic  before  his  conver- 
sion, this  is  affirmed  by  his  alegorical  exegesis  of  the 
Scriptures.'*'  In  the  history  of  Israel,  such  socalled 
mystic  phenomena  are  associated  with  the  prophetic 
office.  To  cite  a  few  examples,  I  Sam.  x:  5-10,  here 
the  band  of  prophets  under  the  spell  of  stirring  music, 
are  swayed  by  a  common  religious  excitement,  Saul 
contracts  the  contagion,  he  prophesises,  strips  himself 
of  his  clothes,  and  falls  to  the  ground  exhausted. 
Again,  in  2  Kings  iii :  15,  Elisha,  at  the  sound  of  music, 
is  seized  by  the  prophetic  inspiration  and  proclaims 
the  word  of  the  Lord.  The  phenomenon  related  in  the 
Samuel  passage  is  associated  with  'Ruach  Eloheim,' 
which,  in  the  early  stages  of  popular  religion,  probably 
indicated  demoniac  possession,  but  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, was  already  associated  with  the  person  of 
Jahweh.  In  the  Kings-passage  the  phrase  "the  hand  of 
Jahweh"  is  used.  In  Ezekiel,  this  same  phrase  is  used 
in  connection  with  ecstatic  conditions. 

In  the  experiences  of  the  greatest  prophets.,  visions 
are  rare,  but  the  idea  of  close  fellowship  with  Jahweh 
stands  out  prominently,  and  is  often  described  as 
"knowing  God."  In  Hosea  ii :  20,  we  read:  "I  will 
even  betroth  thee  unto  me  in  faithfulness,  and  thou 
shalt  know  the  Lord."  This  knowledge  is  a  revelation 
of  God  in  the  inner  being.  This  aspect  appears  most 
forcibly,  perhaps,  in  the  Psalms.  So  Psalm  ii :  11: 
"Cast  me  not  away  from  thy  presence,  and  take  thy 
Holy  Spirit  not  from  me."     Again,  Psalm  xxii :  23- 


An  Interpretation  of  Facts  Presented      47 

26:  "Nevertheless,  I  am  continually  with  thee. .  .who 
have  I  in  heaven  but  thee  and  there  is  none  on  earth 
that  I  desire  beside  thee." 

It  is  clear  that  there  is  a  close  relation  between  the 
Old  Testament  idea  of  the  "knowledge  of  God"  and 
Paul's  conception  of  vz^wcrt?,  with  which  we  will  deal 
at  a  later  stage.  At  the  present,  let  us  take  a  glance 
at  the  standpoint  of  Ezekiel.  He  too,  appears  to  pos- 
sess a  nature  sensitive  to  ecstatic  impressions,  which 
play  an  important  role  in  his  prophetic  activity.  "And 
the  spirit  entered  into  me  when  he  spake  unto  me,  and 
set  me  upon  my  feet,  and  I  heard  him  that  spake  unto 
me,"  Ez.  ii :  2. 

Volz  believes  that  Ezekiel  received  the  divine  mes- 
sage, while  in  a  state  of  ecstacy,  which  was  associated 
with  intense  bodily  sensations.  In  the  third  chapter, 
the  prophet  describes  how  the  Spirit  lifted  him  up 
between  the  earth  and  the  heaven,  bringing  him  in  the 
visions  of  God  to  Jerusalem.  This  took  place  after 
"the  hand  of  the  Lord  God"  had  fallen  upon  him. 

In  contrast  to  the  pre-exilic  prophets,  Ezekiel  quite 
frequently  makes  mention  of  the  Spirit  of  Jahweh  in 
connection  with  his  inspired  messages.  All  through 
the  post-exilic  times  the  Rtiach  Jahweh  becomes  in- 
creasingly regarded  as  the  special  gift  of  the  prophet. 
In  Deutero-Isaiah,  the  process  becomes  ethicized,  and 
as  Kennedy  remarks,  it  is  difficult  to  refrain  from  com- 
paring this  process  with  that  by  which  Paul  ethicized 
the  ecstatic  conception  of  the  pneuma  current  in  early 
Christianity. 

It  must  be  observed  that  in  the  case  of  the  Old 
Testament   prophets,    the   ecstatic    condition   did   not 


48        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

cause  them  to  lose  consciousness,  nor  to  forget  what 
they  had  experienced  while  "in  the  Spirit,"  as  was 
frequently  the  case  with  people  in  the  state  of  ecstacy. 
Evidence  of  this  is  furnished  in  Ez.  ii :  8ff,  where  the 
Lord  says :  "Open  thy  mouth  and  eat  that  which  I  give 
thee ;  and  when  I  looked,  behold  a  hand  was  put  forth 
unto  me;  and  lo,  a  roll  of  a  book  was  therein;  and  he 
spread  it  before  me  and  it  was  written  within  and  with- 
out, and  there  were  written  therein,  lamentations  and 
mourning  and  woe."  Thus  it  is  clear  the  prophet  was 
not  dealing  with  phenomena  wholly  external  to  himself ^ 
but  the  "Spirit  of  Jahweh,"  working  through  him, 
utilized  his  senses  and  preserved  his  memory  unbroken 
so  that  he  was  able  to  record  what  he  had  experienced 
"in  the  Spirit." 


IX 

The  Possibility  of  Judaism  Being  Influenced  by 
Hellenistic  Culture 

THE  fact  that  these  visions  and  revelations,  which 
are  commonly  related  to  eschatalogical  affairs,  are 
in  many  instances  associated  with  the  ascent  of  the 
soul  into  heaven,  has  led  some  scholars  to  infer  that 
the  conception  has  come  to  Judaism  from  without, 
particularly  from  Hellenistic-Egyptian  culture.  Now, 
is  is  true  that  Judaism  came  into  very  close  contact 
with  various  phases  of  Hellenistic  syncretism.  For, 
as  Dietrich  has  observed  (Eine  Mithrasliturgie  p. 
199),  since  the  time  of  Plato,  the  idea  of  the  ascent 
of  the  soul  to  the  higher  regions  has  been  an  important 
feature  in  Greek  religion.  This  experience  is  described 
in  tlie  Ethiopic  Enoch  and  in  the  Slavonic  Enoch.  In 
the  latter,  the  seer  is  conveyed  through  the  various 
heavens  until  the  seventh  is  reached,  where  he  is  set 
before  "the  face  of  the  Lord."  His  earthly  robe  is 
exchanged  for  one  of  Divine  glory.  In  all  probability, 
this  refers  to  the  purification  of  the  soul,  and  appears 
to  be  very  similar  to  the  Hellenistic  idea  of  the  ascent 
of  the  soul  through  the  various  spheres  for  the  purpose 
of  the  ecstatic  mysticism  current  in  certain  Judaistic 
circles,  and  which  lay  behind  the  portrayals  given  in 
the  Apocalypses  of  the  religious  heroes  of  the  olden 

49 


50         St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

times.  The  description  given  above,  from  the  Slavonic 
Enoch  is  very  similar  to  Paul's  mystic  experience 
recorded  in  2  Cor.  xii:  iff,  and  Gunkel  indicates  many 
parallels   between   Paul   and  these   apocalyptic   ideas. 

In  the  Rabbinic  literature  the  ecstatic  experiences 
are  held  in  check.  Especially  is  this  true  of  the  Rab- 
binic schools  of  the  second  century.  Simon  ben  Azzai, 
is  said  to  have  died  after  glancing  into  the  mysteries 
of  the  'garden.'  Yet  the  existence  of  'pneumatic' 
phenomena  in  Rabbinic  circles  cannot  be  denied.  In 
the  Wisdom  of  Solomon  ix.  17  v^e  read:  "Who  hath 
known  thy  council,  except  thou  hast  given  him  wisdom 
and  sent  thy  holy  spirit  from  on  high?"  Such  a 
notable  Rabbi  as  Hillel,  was  regarded  as  inspired  by 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Schechter  quotes  the  following  from 
a  Midrash :  "Holiness  means  nothing  else  than  proph- 
ecy." But  the  most  striking  evidence  of  the  mystical 
element  in  Rabbinic  literature,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
conception  of  the  Shechinah.  In  the  earlier  forms  of 
Rabbinic  writings  the  Shechinah  is  represented  as 
clothed  in  material  forms  such  as  fire  and  light.  Later, 
this  usage  appears  as  symbolic.  The  Shechinah  is  also 
frequently  represented  as  an  emanation  of  God  em- 
bodying His  presence.  It  is  sometimes  directly  per- 
sonified. The  variety  of  usages  of  the  Shechinah  is 
strikingly  similar  to  the  New  Testament  idea  of  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

But  in  Judaistic  thought,  we  never  seem  to  be  con- 
fronted with  the  idea  of  absolute  unity  with  the  deity, 
as  in  the  Mystery  Religions.  Nor  do  mortals  ever 
appear  to  become  deified  through  mystical  communion 
with  God.     And  these  facts  are  of  importance  when 


Judaism  and  Hellenistic  Culture  51 

considered  in  relation  with  the  mystical  notions  of 
Paul.  The  passages  which  most  nearly  approach  such 
a  mystical  union,  as  for  example,  those  passages 
collected  from  Rabbinic  literature  by  Klein,  in  which 
the  mystical  name  of  God  is  Ani  we-hu,  'T  and  God," 
indicating  close  relation  with  God,  are  thought  by  some 
scholars  to  be  traceable  to  foreign  influence. 

Sir  William  Ramsey,  in  his  Hist.  Com.  on  Gal.  pp. 
893  ff.,  points  out  how  Judaism  was  brought  into  con- 
tact with  Paganism  in  Asia  Minor.  From  the  narra- 
tive in  Acts,  it  is  also  evident  that  the  Jews  had  come 
into  close  contact  with  the  natives  of  Phrygia,  before 
Paul's  first  missionary  journey  through  Asia  Minor. 
In  200  B.  C,  Antochus  the  Great,  founded  Jewish 
colonies  in  Asia  Minor,  and  through  the  influence  of 
these  colonies,  Cumont  thinks  the  worship  of  the  Phry- 
gian deity,  /cu/3to?  '2a^d^io<;  was  blended  with  the  Old 
Testament  Jahweh,  designated  in  the  LXX  as  tcvpLo^ 
^a^acoO^  The  mysteries  of  this  cult  were  strikingly 
similar  to  those  of  the  god  Attis. 

Another  source  of  Jewish  contact  with  the  Orient- 
als, is  that  of  the  Babylonia  captivity.  The  cosmo- 
logical  speculations  of  the  Ethiopic  and  Slavonic 
Enoch  are  clearly  traceable  to  the  Babylonian  astro- 
nomical theology.  To  this  source  it  may  also  be  pos- 
sible to  trace  the  element  worship  (o-rot^j^eta),  which 
we  find  in  Judaism.,  But  in  Gal.  iv:  3ff.,  we  find 
that  Paul,  instead  of  being  influenced  by  this  element 
worship,  admonishes  the  Galatians  against  it. 

Cumont  has  pointed  out  the  contact  of  Jewish 
thought  with  Persian  beliefs,  but  Kennedy  concludes 
that  the  Persian  influence  has  been  greatly  exagger- 


52        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

ated.  It  has  also  been  the  opinion  of  some  scholars 
that  the  Jewish  idea  of  the  all-powerful  Name  is  of 
Egyptian  origin.  But  similar  notions  were  almost 
universal  in  primitive  society,  and  the  magical 
papyrus,  which  have  recently  come  to  light,  reveals 
the  fact  that  Egyptian  magical  re'ligion  had  incorpor- 
ated many  distinctively  Jewish  elements,  especially 
forms  of  the  Divine  Name,  as  for  example,  'law, 
^Afipido).  See  Dietrich's  Abraxas  p.  20  iff.  There 
seems  to  be  little  possibihty,  then,  that  Paul  was  in- 
fluenced by  Pagan  thought  through  the  channel  of 
Judaism. 


X 

Detailed  Relation  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Terminology 
of  the  Mystery  Religions 

LET  us  now  endeavor  to  determine  the  detailed 
relation  of  St.  Paul  to  the  terminology  and  the 
ideas  of  the  Mystery  Religions.  Enough  has  already 
been  said  to  show  that  in  all  the  main  centers  of  Paul's 
activities,  he  was  brought  into  direct  contact  with  the 
Mystery  Religions.  And  by  this  time,  these  mystery 
cults  had  become  sufficiently  Hellenized  to  be  purged 
from  their  barbarous  tinges  so  that  their  whole  atmos- 
phere was  becoming  spiritualized.  Consequently,  we 
need  be  no  more  surprised  to  fmd  Paul  borrowing  met- 
aphors from  the  heathen  myths  than  to  find  him  em.- 
ploying  figures  of  speech  drawn  from  the  heathen  ath- 
letic games.  There  seems  to  be  little  doubt  but  v/hat 
Paul  employs  terms  which  have  acquired  a  technical 
meaning  in  the  mystery^  cults.  Such  terms  are  most  fre- 
quently found  in  the  imprisonment-Epistles,  and  the 
Epistles  to  the  Corinthians,  all  of  which  were  address- 
ed to  communities  where  the  mystery  brotherhoods 
flourished.  Side  by  side  with  these  terms,  there  are  ideas 
in  the  Pauline  writings,  which  also  bear  strinking  re- 
semblance to  the  Mystery  Religions.  The  question  now 
arises :  to  what  extent  does  the  use  of  the  Mystery 
terminology  involve  the  adoption  of  the  underlying 
ideas  ? 

S3 


54         St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

Before  proceeding,  howevere,  it  seems  necessary  to 
remark  that  Reitzenstein's  postulate  that  Paul  had  an 
acquaintance  with  the  Hellenistic  religious  literature, 
is  a  mere  hypothesis.  There  is  no  evidence  to  support 
this  view.  But,  regarding  liturgical  formu'lae,  and 
the  technical  terms  of  ritual,  we  may  safely  posit 
that  Paul  used  such  of  these  terms  as  were  in  common 
circulation.  It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  that  the 
Corinthian  brotherhood  of  Christians  had  some  links 
of  connection  with  many  who  were  formerly  members 
of  the  mystic  guilds.  In  such  passages  as  I  Cor.  vii : 
II :  "I  give  charge,  yea  not  I  but  the  Lord,  that  the 
wife  depart  not  from  the  husband — but  should  she 
depart,  let  her  remain  unmarried,  or  else  let  her  be 
reconciled  to  her  husband — and  that  the  husband 
leave  not  his  wife;"  and  xii:  14:  "For  the  body  is  not 
one  member  but  many,"  there  seems  to  be  indicated 
a  danger  of  the  Christian  communities  falling  back 
into  the  customs  of  the  pagan  cults. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  many  of  the  mystery 
ideas,  and  many  of  the  terms  in  which  they  are  set 
forth,  come  directly  from  the  universal  strain  of 
mysticism  everywhere  latent  in  religion,  and  which 
reveal  themselves  under  favorable  conditions.  From 
this  point  of  view,  Christianity  and  the  Mystery  Relig- 
ions are  bound  to  have  some  things  in  common.  But, 
on  the  other  hand  we  find  running  through  the  Pauline 
Epistles,  terms  and  ideas,  which  have  direct  associa- 
tions with  the  Mystery  Religions  and  which  cannot 
be  merely  accidental.  In  the  context  of  I  Cor.  ii :  6, 
we  meet  with  groups  of  ideas  of  the  type  in  question, 
which  show  us  the  trend  of  the  Apostle's  thought,  and 


Relation  of  St.  Paul  to  Mystery  Religions    55 

which  also  furnish  evidence  for  the  influence  of  the 
Mystery  Religions.  Yet,  even  here  we  cannot  deny 
the  possibility  of  the  mystery  being  only  the  symbol 
of   an   actually   experienced   conversion. 

Our  discussion  of  terminology  is  based  largely  on 
Kennedy's  presentation  of  St.  Paul's  Relation  to  the 
Mystery-Terminology,  which  constitutes  the  fourth 
chapter  of  his  book,  St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Relig- 
ions. First  of  all,  we  will  examine  the  term 
/jLV(TTr}piov.  It  is  used  nineteen  times  in  the  Epistles  of 
Paul.  The  underlying  idea  which  it  conveys,  is  funda- 
mentally that  of  something  once  hidden,  but  now  re- 
vealed. It  also  stands  for  any  ritual  or  magical  action, 
from  which,  according  to  Reitzenstein  (H.  M.  R. 
pp.  95-97)  is  developed  the  idea  of  a  document  con- 
taining a  revelation,  or  a  divinely  taught  prayer,  which 
is  believed  to  be  eitectual.  In  the  LXX.,  it  invariably 
means  the  'secrets'  or  'secret  plans'  of  God  or  men, 
usually  the  latter.  It  occurs  once  in  Daniel,  where 
it  stands  for  the  king's  dream.  In  the  Gospels,  it 
occurs  in  Matthew  xiii :  11:  o  Be  _  aTrofcptOeU  elirev 
on  "Tfuv  SeSorac  yvMvai  ra  /jLvarijpia  tt}?  jBaaiXeia^ 
rSiv  ovpavo)v^  also  Mk.  iv :  11,  Luke  viii :  10  where 
it  stands  for  the  secrets  of  the  Kingdom  which  are 
being  made  manifest  in  the  work  and  teaching  of 
Jesus.  Some  of  the  instances  in  the  Pauline  Epistles 
correspond  with  the  usage  made  of  the  word  in  the 
LXX.  An  example  of  this  is  found  in  Romans  xi : 
25 ;  "For  I  do  not  wish  you,  brethren,  to  be  ignorant 
of  this  fxvo-rrjpLov  .  ,  .  that  callousness  has,  in  part, 
fallen  upon  Israel  until  the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles 
come  in,  and  so  all  Israel  shall  be  saved."     Paul  can 


56         St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

only  explain  Israel's  rejection  of  the  Gospel  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  the  secret  purpose  of  God,  whereby 
the  salvation  of  the  Gentiles  shall  ultimately  prove  to 
be  a  compelling  force  to  save  Israel  also. 

For  the  New  Testament,  the  Old  Testament  and 
ailso  for  the  Mystery-Religions,  the  prophet  is  the 
one  who  can  declare  to  his  fellowmen  the  hidden  will 
of  God.  So  Paul  in  I  Corinthians  describes  the  trans- 
formation of  believers  as  a  fiva-rrjpiov^  that  is,  a 
Divine  secret  which  has  been  revealed  to  him  alone. 
Again  in  I  Corinthians  iv:  i,  he  speaks  of  himself  and 
his  fellow  laborers  as  ''ministers  of  Christ  and 
stewards  of  the  /jlv&tjJplov  of  God."  This  gift  of 
revealing  the  secrets  of  God,  Paul  regarded  as  even 
more  important  than  that  of  "speaking  with  tongues," 
though  the  'latter  was  also  of  the  Spirit.  While  the 
Apostle  was  held  a  prisoner  at  Rome,  he  writes  to  the 
Ephesians,  chapter  iii:  i  ff:  "For  this  cause  I,  Paul, 
the  prisoner  of  Christ  Jesus  on  behalf  of  you  Gentiles, 
if  as  a  matter  of  fact  ye  heard  of  the  stewardship  of 
grace  of  God  granted  to  me  with  a  view  to  you,  how 
that  by  revelation  was  made  known  to  me  the 
/jLV(rr7]pLa  .  .  .  which  was  not  made  known  in  other 
generations  .  .  .  that  the  Gentiles  are  fellow-heirs  and 
fellow-miembers  of  the  body  and  fellow-partakers  of 
the  promise  in  Christ  Jesus  through  the  Gospel."  A 
wider  aspect  of  the  same  idea  is  brought  forth  in 
Ephesians  i:  9  ff:  "Having  made  known  to  us  the 
fivartjptov  of  his  will,  according  to  his  good  pleasure 
which  he  purposed  in  him  for  the  dispensation  of  the 
fullness  of  the  times,  to  sum  up  all  things  in  Qirist." 
Without  dealing  with  any  more  of  the  passages  in 


Relation  of  St.  Paul  to  Mystery  Religions    57 

which  the  term  ixvarripiov  is  used,  let  us  notice  the 
impUcations  attaching  to  it.  In  most  cases  it  is  found 
in  connection  with  verbs  of  revelation,  such  as 
aTroKoKinrTeiv,  cfyavepovVy  'yvoDpi^eiv.  This  is  in  full 
accordance  with  Paul's  conception  of  himself  as 
preacher  as  in  I  Cor.  i:  23:  *'We  proclaim  Christ 
crucified."  A'lso  2  Cor.  v:  20:  "We  are  ambassadors, 
therefore,  on  behalf  of  Christ,  as  though  God  were 
entreating  by  us:  we  beseech  you  on  behalf  of  Christ, 
be  ye  reconciled  to  God."  It  is  also  used  in  deference 
to  the  trans  forming.,  d  iscoveiy  which  Paul  has  reached 
_ajong  the  lines  of  his  own  Christian  experience,  tTiat 
Gentile  as  well  as  Jew  is  open  to  the  blessings  of  the 
Gospel.  It  sometimes  has  a  distinct  escatalogical 
significance  as  in  I  Cor.  ii :  7 :  "We  speak  God's 
wisdom  in  a  mystery  .  .  .  the  wisdom  which  God  fore- 
ordained for  our  glory."  Also  Colossians  i:  26, 
Ephesians  i :  9,  2,  Thessalonians  ii :  7.  We  must  of 
course  make  allowance  for  the  Old  Testament  con- 
ceptions, but  after  this  is  done  it  seems  evident  that 
Paul  has  to  some  extent  identified  himself  with  the 
point  of  view  of  the  Mystery  Religions. 

In  I  Cor.  ii :  6,  Paul  refers  to  cro(f)ia,  a  higher  stage 
of  instruction  which  he  imparts  to  the  reXeioL.  Ken- 
nedy thinks  it  is  possible  that  there  is  an  allusion  in 
both  these  expressions  to  the  arrogant  claims  of  the 
Apol'los-party.  It  is  known  that  Alexandrian  Judaism 
emphasized  a  superior  knowledge  (cro^ta)  which 
they  believed  to  be  bestowed  by  God  upon  elect  souls. 
In  Wisd.  viii :  4,  this  personified  cro^ia  is  spoken  of 
as  /xucTTt?  .  .  .  TT}'^  Tov  deov  eTna-Tr}fM-q<^.  Philo,  in 
connection    with     certain    Old    Testament    passages 


58         St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

speaks  of  "instructing  in  divine  mysteries  the  initiates 
who  are  worthy  of  such  sacred  mysteries."  The 
reXeto?  may  belong  to  this  class  of  mysteries.  In  Plato, 
the  phrase  ra  reXea  koX  eTroTriiKa  (^fiva-rrjpLa)  is  used 
to  denote  the  higher  initiation  and  describes  the  man 
who  employs  the  memories  of  what  his  soul  once 
sav/  in  fellowship  with  God  (avixiropevOelaa  O^w) 
as  "being  ever  initiated  into  perfect  mysteries" 
rekiov^  aetTeXera?  reXouftet'o?)  and  alone  becom- 
ing "truly  perfect"  (reXeo^  6vtco<;),  Phsedrus  249  C. 
Reitzenstein,  in  his  H.  M.  R.  p.  165  shows  us  that  in 
the  Hermetic  literature,  those  receiving  the  baptism 
of  the  Divine  1/01)9 ■  become    TeXeio^, 

Paul  uses  the  term  leXeto^  seven  times.  In  two 
of  the  passages  where  it  occurs,  TeXeio';  is  contrasted 
with  vrjTTLOf;  (I  Cor.  xiv :  20,  Eph.  iv :  13).  Here 
the  term  has  the  meaning  of  full  grown  as  contrasted 
with  childish.  It  is  the  stage  of  mature  knowledge 
as  opposed  to  elementary  knowledge.  The  word, 
TTvevfiaTiKol  is  used  as  an  equivalent  for  reXeioL 
in  the  context  of  I  Cor.  iii:  i  ff.,  and  is  also  put  in 
opposition  to  vqirioi.  In  a  general  way,  the  term 
"mature"  might  be  used  to  suit  all  the  Pauline  pas- 
sages. J.  Weiss,  in  his  Commentary  on  I  Cor.  iii :  3 
points  out  that  some  of  the  Stoics  and  Philo  use 
reXeio?  to  describe  the  culminating  period  of  a  good 
life.  Philo  (Leg.  Alleg.  iii,  859)  puts  it  after  the 
two  earlier  phrases  of  6  apxoiJ^evo<^  and  6  irpoKoirrayv. 
Epictetus,  in  The  Encheiridon  throws  some  light  on 
TO  reXeto?,  which  in  I  Cor.  xiii :  10,  Paul  contrasts 
with  TO  ifc  /ie/3ou9.  He  also  sheds  light  on  ol  reXetot 
of  Philipians  iii:  15.    In  both  these  passages  the  term 


Relation  of  St.  Paul  to  Mystery  Religions    59 

seems  to  have  an  anticipatory  meaning,  for  the  Apostle 
has  just  spoken  of  himself  as  having  not  reached  the 
goal.  Epictetus  applies  the  term  to  the  man  who  has 
set  out  on  the  true  path  and  who  is  still  advancing.  He 
warns  against  not  making  any  progress.  This  seems 
to  be  strictly  in  accord  with  the  Apostle's  usage  of 
the  term.  In  view  of  the  associations  with  the 
Mystery  Religions,  which  the  communities  had,  to 
which  Paul  is  speaking,  it  is  only  fair  to  suppose  that 
the  Mystery  atmosphere  had  some  influence  upon  him 
though  no  definite  conclusions  can  be  reached  as  to 
how  far  Paul  agrees  with  the  Mystery  ideas. 

The  term  irvevfjia  is  employed  in  the  Epistles  more 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty  times,  and  in  all  but  about 
thirty  it  refers  to  the  direct  influence  of  God.  It  is 
the  Divine  response  to  faith  in  Christ  crucified,  risen 
and  alive  for  evermore.  In  Romans  viii:  9,  10,  he 
identifies  the  irvevfxa  with  the  indewelling  Christ. 
"But  ye  are  not  in  the  flesh  but  in  the  spirit,  if  so 
be  that  the  spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you.  But  if  any 
man  has  not  the  spirit  of  Christ  he  is  none  of  his. 
And  if  Christ  is  in  you,  the  body  is  dead  because  of 
sin ;  but  the  spirit  is  life  because  of  righteousness." 
The  new  life  of  the  Christian  may  be  regarded  as 
7rp€v/xa  in  contrast  with  capl,  because  the  Spirit 
so  transforms  the  inner  Hfe  that  it  becomes  one  with 
the  Divine  life  of  Christ.  Sometimes  the  Trvev/jia 
seems  to  stand  for  merely  the  inner  life  of  man  with- 
out any  special  reference  to  Divine  inspiration,  so  I 
Cor.  ii:  11  :  "What  man  knoweth  the  things  of  man, 
except  the  spirit  of  man  which  is  in  him." 

Paul's  use  of  the  word    vovs    in  this  circle  of  ideas 


6o         St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

seems  to  be  a  little  perplexing,  but  generally  has  the 
meaning  given  to  it  in  the  popular  usage  of  the  period, 
that  is,  the  power  of  judging  that  which  belongs  to 
the  inner  life.  When  this  judgment  is  true  to  itself, 
it  will  decide  in  favor  of  the  Divine  law,  as  in  Romans 
vii:  25:  **So  then,  I  of  myself  with  the  vov^  indeed, 
serve  the  law  of  God,  but  with  the  aap^  tlie  law  of 
sin."  That  is,  as  apart  from  Divine  influence  with 
my  vov<;  I  serve  the  law  of  God,  but  if  the  vov<f 
is  not  enlivened  by  the  Divine  irvevfia  it  will  be 
limited  by  its  fleshy  associations.  The  vov^  provides 
the  basis  for  the  action  of  the  Divine  TrvevfjLa.  So 
in  Romans  he  speaks  of  the  renewing  of  the  vov<; 
and  in  I  Cor.  xiv:  13  f¥.,  he  distinguishes  between 
TO  TTvevfia  /JLov  and  6  vov<;  ftou,  irvev/jLa  denoting 
his  inner  life  on  the  inspired  side,  while  the  vois 
denotes  cool  judgment  which  regulates  spiritual  ex- 
periences with  a  view  to  practical  unity.  It  must 
be  noted  that  in  Romans  xi :  34  and  I  Cor.  ii :  16,  Paul 
quotes  the  LXX.  of  Isaiah  xl:  13,  retaining  the  ex- 
pression vov^  Kvpiov,  voik  being  the  LXX.  translation 
of    the    Hebrew    'rauch,'    which   is  usually    rendered 

Reitzenstein  asserts  that  the  various  uses  of  Trvevfia 
in  Paul's  Epistles  are  all  to  be  found  in  the  Hellen- 
istic religious  documents.  He  maintains  that  the 
antithesis  between  7rv€v/jiaTtKo<;  and  yjrvxi''^o<i  was 
current  before  Paul's  time;  that  TrvevyLariKo^  was  a 
definite  religious  conception  in  the  mystery  faiths ;  and 
that  you?,  had  already  been  regarded  as  an  important 
religious  term,  and  the  direct  equivalent  of  Trvevfia. 
"It  is  noteworthy,  that  all  the  passages  in  Paul  can 


Relation  of  St.  Paul  to  Mystery  Religions   6i 

be  explained  from  Hellenistic  usage  (particularly 
those  in  which  we  cannot  decide  whether  he  is  speaking 
of  the  TTvevfia  of  man  or  of  a  Divine  Trvevfia  as  I 
Cor.  v:  4  ff).  Whether  all  may  be  easily  understood 
from  the  Hebrew  use  of  'rauch'  and  'nephesh,'  or 
from  the  irvevfia  in  the  LXX.,  the  theologian  must 
determine."     Reitzenstein's  H.  M.  R.  p.  140. 

Let  us  examine  the  evidence  which  Reitzenstein 
adduces.  The  term  irvev/jia  is  used  in  different  senses 
in  the  Hellenistic  mystery-documents.  Uvevfia  is 
contrasted  with  aoj/jLa  and  crap^:  eTTLKaXovfiaL  ae  rov 
KTiaavra  .  .  .  iradav  crdpKa  Koi  ttclv  Trveu/xa;  see  H. 
M.  R.  page  136.  Hvevixa  is  also  used  of  God:  "Hail, 
Spirit  that  enters  into  me  .  .  .  according  to  the  Divine 
will,  in  graciousness ;  see  H.  M.  R.  page  137.  "And 
straightaway  enters  the  Divine  Spirit."  H.  M.  R.  p. 
137.  The  TTvev^a  is  also  contrasted  with  "^vxv- 
Here  Reitzenstein  quotes  Philo.  He  admits  that 
while  TTvevfia  is  used  to  describe  the  higher  life, 
'^v^v  is  also  used  in  the  same  connection :  aad>fiara 
he  oaoL  Kol  ^vfiva  Oecopeiv  ra  TrpajfiaTa  BvvavraL,  01 
"^^XV  H'^^^ov  rj  a(i)/jLarL  ^wi^re?,  see  H.  M.  R.  pages 
145-6. 

Reitzenstein  quotes  but  one  instance  where  the  ad- 
jective corresponding  to  irvevfia  is  employed  in  de- 
scribing the  spiritually  possessed  person.  Eros  is 
addressed  as  the  lord  of  all  spiritual  perception,  of 
all  hidden  things.  Trotr?;?  irvevfjLariKrjfi  alaOrjaeoi^; 
Kpv<f)icov  TrdvToyv  dva^;  see  H.  M.  R.  p.  139.  With 
regard  to  the  term  y^rv^^i^o^  the  adjective  correspond- 
ing to  '^vxrj,  Dietrich,  in  his  'Eine  Mithrasliturgie' 
p.  4,  cites  the  only  place  where  it  occurs  in  the  extant 


62        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

fragments.  It  is  in  a  liturgical  prayer  of  the  Mithra 
cult.  The  initiate,  after  beholding  God  in  a  vision 
prays :  "For  today,  I,  a  mortal  bom  of  mortal  womb, 
exalted  by  Almighty  power  and  incorruptible  right 
hand,  with  immortal  eyes  shall  behold  my  immortal 
spirit,  the  immortal  Aeon  and  Lord  of  the  crowns  of 
fire,  I,  who  have  been  sanctified  by  sacred  rites,  while 
for  a  little,  my  human  powers  (avOpcoinvrj^  jjlov 
yjrvxi'Kr}^  hwdfjiew^^  stay  behind."  Here,  without 
doubt  -yjrvxi'icr]^  refers  to  human  nature  as  distinct 
from  TTvev/jLa.  The  other  passages  Reitzenstein  cites, 
are  taken  from  Gnostic  literature  of  post-Christian 
date. 


XI 

Apparent  Evidence  of  Double-Personality  Phrases 

WE  turn  now  to  examine  the  phrases  in  Paul  and 
the  Mystery  Religions  which  seem  to  give 
evidence  of  double-personality.  In  Galatians  ii :  20, 
we  read:  "I  have  been  crucified  with  Christ;  and  it 
is  no  longer  I  that  live,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me."  But 
this  does  not  at  all  mean  that  Paul's  life  was  disin- 
tegrated, for  in  the  next  line  we  read :  '"'And  that  life 
which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live  in  the  faith  which 
is  in  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me  and  gave  himself 
up  for  me."  This  is  not  Pantheism,  for  Pantheism 
identifies  all  of  God  with  all  of  the  world  and  vice 
versa,  whereas  in  the  passage  quoted  above,  Paul's 
identity  is  not  lost  in  the  vague  experience  of  God. 
Reitzenstein  claims  that  he  finds  a  double-personality 
in  the  initiates  of  the  Mystery  Religions.  In  the 
Liturgy  of  Mithra,  an  aspirant  cries  out:  "It  is  not 
possible  for  me  a  mortal  born,  to  rise  up  on  high  wath 
the  golden  radiance  of  the  immortal  light."  He  quiets 
his  human  nature  while  he  attains  the  vision  of  God 
with  his  Divine,  see  Eine  Mithrasliturgie  p.  4.  Reit- 
zenstein quotes  from  a  vision  of  the  alchemist  Zosi- 
mus,  who  reflects  the  popular  Mystery-theology: 
OL  yap  Oe\ovT€<;  avOpcoiroi  aperrf^  TV')(elv  wSe  elcrep')^^ 
ovrai  Kal  jLVOvraL  irvev/jLara  (j)vy6vT€<i  to  aco/jLa.  "For 
the  men  who  desire  to  reach  virtue  enter  in  here  and 

63 


64        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

become  spirits,  escaping  from  the  body."  H.  M.  R. 
p.  141 .  Reitzenstein  seeks  a  parallel  to  the  passage 
above  quoted  in  the  first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians, 
chapter  two.  Here,  he  claims  Paul  uses  the  term 
■\jrv)(^Lfc6^  in  the  sense  of  the  'man  pure  and  simple,' 
and  the  irvevfiaTiKo^  is  'no  longer  man  at  all.'  But 
there  does  not  seem  to  be  any  evidence  here  at  all  that 
any  ecstatic  state  is  implied,  as  is  the  case  in  the 
Mysteries.  The  possession  of  the  pneuma  for  Paul 
is  the  ordinary  condition  for  the  Christian.  So  the 
parallel  cannot  be  pushed  too  far.  Of  course  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  the  exercise  of  special  gifts, 
such  as  prophecy  and  speaking  with  tongues  were  due 
to  the  act  of  the  Spirit,  and  probably  to  these  gifts 
were  due  the  ecstatic  character  which  was  manifested 
in  the  phenomena.  But  Paul  always  subordinated  these 
to  the  permanent  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  "love,  joy,  peace, 
long-suffering,  gentleness." 

Paul  occasionally  adopts  from  the  LXX.  a  use  of 
vov<;  which  is  practically  equivalent  to  irvevfia 
which  may  indicate  that  he  and  his  readers  were 
familiar  with  the  usage.  Now  in  the  Hermetic  litera- 
ture, vov^  is  used  as  a  synonym  for  irvevfia  and 
in  the  Poimandres  p.  102,  Reitzenstein  points  out  that 
o  vov<;  is  described  as  the  '^vxv  of  God.  And  again, 
"All  who  are  baptised  in  the  vov<;,  these  partake  of 
yva)(TL^  and  become  reXetot  avOpcoTroi,  having  received 
the  roO?.  H.  M.  R.  p.  165.  Hence,  it  appears  to  be 
a  Divine  gift. 

Thus  far,  then,  we  may  say  that  Reitzenstein  has 
produced  evidence  which  will  warrant  the  conclusion 
that   in   the   Hellenistic   Mystery   Religions      irvev^a 


Apparent  Evidence  of  Double-Personality  65 

and  (Tapf  are  used  to  describe  the  Divine  spirit  in 
itself,  or  the  spirit  which  is  imparted  to  those  who 
have  fulfilled  some  conditions.  That  is  to  say,  they 
become  religious  terms.  It  is  also  true  that  a  dis- 
tinction can  be  drawn  between  the  terms  irveviiv 
and  '^v^^  that  is,  the  Divine  life  is  contrasted  with 
the  human,  but  instances  of  this  are  rare.  This  usage 
of  course,  is  not  the  ordinary  Greek  usage,  and  Reit- 
zenstein  attributes  the  marked  departure  to  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Oriental  Mystery-cults,  with  which  Paul 
would  be  acquainted.  This  may  be  regarded  as  true, 
but  it  is  also  worthy  of  note  that  in  earlier  Hellenistic 
thought  similar  usage  is  found.  Aesch.,  Prom.,  902 : 
Ifo)    Be   Bpofiov  (jyepofiac  Xvorar)<;    TrvevfiaTL  ^dpyo). 

After  this  examination  of  Reitzenstein's  evidence, 
it  is  quite  evident  that  there  is  an  interesting  similarity 
between  the  notion  of  the  indwelling  Divine  spirit  as 
set  forth  in  the  Mystery-Religions  and  St.  Paul's 
notion  of  the  gift  of  the  Trevvfxa,  Yet,  there  seems 
to  be  very  little  in  the  Mystery  Religions  correspond- 
ing to  St.  Paul's  highly  developed  ethical  contrast 
between  cdp^  and  irvevp^a.  And  as  Reitzenstein 
himself  admits,  the  distinction  between  irvev/jLa  and 
yfruXV")  which  Paul  emphasizes  so  strongly,  very  rarely 
exists  in  the  Mystery  Religions. 


XII 

The  Leading  Conceptions  of  St.  Paul's  Thought 
Are  Rooted  in  the  Old  Testament 

IT  is  not  too  Strong  to  say  that  most  of  the  leading 
conceptions  in  this  particular  range  of  Paul's 
religious  thought  are  rooted  in  the  Old  Testament. 
The  Hebrew  word  'basar,'  meaning  'flesh,'  has  a  psy- 
chological connotation  in  such  passages  as  Job  iv:  15, 
Ezek.  xxxvi :  26,  Ixxxiv :  2 :  and  in  some  cases  'flesh' 
is  used  of  man  in  contrast  with  God  to  emphasize  the 
former's  weakness  and  dependence,  so  Psalm  Ivi :  4, 
Isaiah  xl :  6,  Jer.  xvii :  5.  Here,  no  doubt,  is  the  soil 
from  which  Paul  extracts  his  notion  of  a-dp^.  This 
adp^  with  its  consequent  evils,  the  Apostle  maintains, 
can  be  overcome  by  the  Trvevfia,  The  irvevfia 
as  the  indwelling  Spirit  of  God  or  Christ  is  also 
capable  of  being  traced  back  to  the  Old  Testament 
conception  of  'ranch,'  which  was  regarded  as  the 
instrument  of  Divine  revelation  in  general,  and  even 
the  endowment  for  special  functions,  as  Isaiah  Ixi: 
1-4.  Wheeler  Robinson  in  his  book,  The  Christian 
Doctrine  of  Man,  p.  125,  states  that  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment man's  relation  to  God  is  conceived  "along  two 
principle  lines,  namely,  that  of  the  Spirit  of  God  acting 
more  or  less  intermittently  and  externally  upon  man, 
and   that   of    spiritual    fellowship    with    God,    which 

66 


Leading  Conceptions  of  St.  Paul's  Thought  67 

sought  realization  in  many  ways."  Paul,  because  of 
his  personal  experience  of  Christ  was  able  to  unite 
these  lines. 

Paul's  use  of  irvevfia  denoting  the  inner  life  of 
man,  apart  from  its  Divine  elements,  is  also  traceable 
to  Old  Testament  usage.  Rauch  and  nephesh  are 
used  interchangeably  especially  after  the  Exile.  In 
Isaiah  xxvi :  9  we  read :  "With  my  soul  have  I  desired 
thee  in  the  night,  yea,  with  my  spirit  within  me  will 
I  seek  thee  earnestly."  Likewise,  the  Old  Testament 
usage  of  nephesh,  signifying  the  life  principle  in  itself 
and  as  a  basis  of  individuality  furnishes  the  source 
of  Paul's  religious  use  of  irvevfia^  and  of  the  antithe- 
sis between  irvevfJLariKO'^  and    yjrv')(^i/c6'i. 

The  term  vov<i  in  the  Pauline  sense,  does  not 
seem  to  be  so  clearly  traceable  to  the  Old  Testament. 
Paul's  usage  of  /capSia^  as  Kennedy  points  out  is 
synonomous  with  the  Old  Testament  *leb'.  But  vov<; 
as  Paul  puts  it,  has  a  far  more  limited  significance 
than  the  Old  Testament  *leb'.  The  term  'leb'  in  Judges 
xviii :  20,  which  Kennedy  quotes,  seems  to  signify  the 
seat  of  the  emotions,  rather  than  the  seat  of  the  intel- 
lect. Also  the  term  a-vvelhrjo-i^  which  belongs  to  the 
vocabulary  of  Greek  philosophy,  seems  to  indicate  the 
influence  of  contemporary  usage  upon  Paul's  psycho- 
loical  terminology.  Reitzenstein's  citation  of  vov<i 
as  an  equivalent  of  jrvevfia  seems  to  have  more 
force  than  Kennedy  is  disposed  to  give  it.  Kennedy 
maintains  that  Paul  is  quoting  from  the  LXX.  and 
''cannot  therefore  be  made  the  basis  of  any  general 
hypothesis."  But  there  are  three  kinds  of  quotations 
which  Paul  resorts  to.    He  either  quotes  directly  from 


68        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

the  Hebrew,  or  directly  from  the  LXX.,  but  when 
these  do  not  meet  his  requirement  he  puts  the  thought 
he  wishes  to  express,  into  his  own  language,  so  we 
must  conclude  that  in  this  case,  when  Paul  quotes  the 
LXX.,  he  was  fully  satisfied  with  it  or  he  would  have 
modified  it. 

Paul  was  well  aware  of  the  existence  of  ecstatic 
experiences  in  the  Mystery-cults  which  bore  some 
relation  to  the  new  Christian  enthusiasm.  In  I  Cor. 
xii. :  I  flf.,  he  refers  to  these  ecstatic  states  as  being 
known  to  his  readers  while  they  were  yet  Gentiles,  and 
suggests  a  test  whereby  they  may  distinguish  these 
from  the  Spirit  of  the  true  God.  In  this  connection 
Paul  uses  the  term  \0709  7i^<oo-eft)9,  "the  word  of 
knowledge."  This  word  yvcHxri,^  stands  out  very 
prominently  in  the  Mystery  Religions.  In  the  Papy- 
rus Mimaut,  Reitzenstein  points  out  an  illustration  of 
the  use  of  gnosis  in  connection  with  the  Hermetic 
Mystery-literature.  By  the  aid  of  a  Latin  translation 
found  in  the  Asclepius  of  Pseudo-Apuleius,  he  has 
succeeded  in  reconstructing  the  Greek  text.  The 
Highest  is  given  thanks  by  the  worshippers  for  grac- 
iously granting  them  "the  light  of  knowledge,"  which 
has  been  bestowed  upon  them  "in  order  that  knowing 
thee  truly  (eirL^vovT&i)  we  may  rejoice."  H.  M.  R. 
p.  113.  "Having  been  saved  by  thee  we  rejoice  that 
thou  didst  reveal  thyself  to  us  wholly,  we  rejoice  that 
while  in  our  bodies  thou  didst  deify  us  in  the  sight 
of  thyself."  Then  after  further  thanksgiving  follows 
the  closing  petition:  "Having  thus  worshipped  thee, 
we  have  made  no  request  of  thy  goodness,  but  this: 
hear  our  supplication  that  we  should  not  fall  away 


Leading  Conceptions  of  St.  Paul's  Thought  69 

from  this  manner  of  life."  Compare  this  with  the 
prayer  Reitzenstein  cites  in  Poimandres  p.  338. 
"Listen  to  me  when  I  pray  that  I  may  not  fall  away 
from  knowledge  .  .  .  and  strengthen  me  and  fill  me 
with  this  grace  that  I  may  enlighten  those  in  ignor- 
ance." Also  another  passage  in  Poimandres  p.  336. 
"This  is  the  blessed  issue  for  those  who  have  attained 
yvaxTL^^  to  be  deified  deaydrfvat,"  From  these  quota- 
tions it  follows  that  in  the  Hermetic  literature 
yu(0(Tt,<;  means  the  apprehension  of  God  which  results 
in  salvation.  It  is  the  means  of  attaining  to  the  high- 
est point  attainable  by  the  initiated.  The  yvojtn^ 
is  accompanied  by  the  powers  of  God.  So  in  the  hymn 
of  regeneration  the  initiate  invokes  the  Sum/xet<? 
to  join  with  him  in  praises,  he  appeals  to  yvcoa-c^f  dyia 
as  the  source  of  his  illumination. 

The  term  e^ovaia  is  used  in  magical  literature  to 
denote  supernatural  power  dependent  upon  super- 
natural knowledge.  So  we  also  find  yvcjcn^  used  in 
magical  formulae:  *T  am  he  whom.  .  .thou  didst 
grant  the  yvS)<n<i  of  his  mighty  name,  which  I  shall 
keep  secret,  sharing  it  with  no  one."    H.  M.  R.  p.  123. 

In  Poimandres  p.  337  emphasis  is  laid  on  ayvcoaia. 
The  "earth  bom  .  .  .  who  have  given  themselves  over 
to  drunkeness  and  slumber  and  ayvcoa-La  rov  Oeov^ 
are  admonished  to  be  sober  (yr^'^are)  and  quite  the 
spell  of  unthinking  sleep.  Compare  this  with  I  Cor. 
XV :  34.  "Awake  to  (eKvij-^are)  soberness,  righteous- 
ly, and  sin  not ;  for  some  have  no  knowledge  of  God." 
Reitzenstein  contends  that  since  ayvwaCa  is  a  positive 
conception  in  both  cases,  and  since  in  both  cases 
ayvcoaia  and    vijipecv  occur  in  the  same  context,  Paul 


70        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

must  have  been  influenced  by  the  Hellenistic-litera- 
ture. Kennedy,  on  the  contrary  thinks  there  is  nothing 
extraordinary  in  this  juxtaposition  of  the  two  words, 
and  cites  i  Thessalonians  v :  4ff.  as  a  parallel.  But 
it  is  to  be  noted  that  in  the  latter  passage  the  word 
a-yvcoala  is  not  used.  There  is,  however  a  passage  in 
the  Wisdom  of  Solomon  xii:  i,  where  the  word  is 
used  in  the  same  sense  in  which  Paul  uses  it.  Reitz- 
enstein  quotes  from  a  doctrinal  treatise  of  the  Ophite 
sect  of  the  Peratae,  which  begins :  "I  am  the  voice  of 
awakening  from  sleep  in  the  aeon  of  the  night." 
Kennedy  thinks  this  passage  and  similar  passages  in 
Poimandres  show  evidence  of  semi-Christian  Gnosti- 
cism, rather  than  that  Paul  was  influenced  by  the 
Hellenistic  literature.  Norden,  in  his  Agnostos  Theos, 
pp.  5,  6,  holds  that  Reitzenstein  has  conclusively 
proved  by  a  great  number  of  examples  that  the  Her- 
metic-literature was  not  influenced  by  Christian 
thought,  but  even  though  Reitzenstein  had  not  proved 
it,  Norden  says  it  would  be  impossible  to  suppose  that 
Christian  Hterature  had  any  influence  on  the  Hermetic 
literature,  for  the  thought  expressed  in  the  Ode  in 
question  is  distinctly  unchristian.  Norden's  conten- 
tion is  that  the  theme  of  ayvaya-ia  is  associated  with 
a  stereotyped  form  of  missionary  discourse  belonging 
to  Hellenistic  religion.  After  examining  the  evidence 
we  may  conclude  that  St.  Paul  was  a  man  who  was 
thoroughly  awake  to  all  that  was  taking  place  about 
him,  consequently  it  is  not  improbable  that  he  made 
use  of  a  well  known  form  of  discourse  through  which 
he  expressed  his  own  message. 

Reitzenstein,    H.    M.    R.    p.    133,    states    that    the 


Leading  Conceptions  of  St.  Paul's  Thought  71 

yvcoaL^  Oeov  as  an  influence  which  produces  7ri/eu/Aa,is  an 
Oriental  Mystery  Religion  conception,  and  owing  to 
the  similarity  between  Paul  and  the  Mystery-Religions 
in  the  'pneumatic  circle  of  ideas,  he  thinks  the 
Apostle's  use  of  yvwcri,^  is  due  to  the  influence  of  the 
Mystery  Religions.  Paul  certainly  regarded  yi(0(n<;  as 
a  gift  of  grace.  Thus  in  I  Cor.  xiii:  2:  "if  I  have 
prophecy  and  know  all  fivarripia  and  all  r^vcocn^."'  In 
I  Cor.  xii :  8,  we  find  it  associated  with  ivepy^]fxaTa 
Bvvdfiecov  '7Tpo(l)i]T€La  and  other  gifts.  We  may  agree 
with  Reitzenstein  that  for  Paul,7i^wcrt?  never  means 
merely  rational  knowledge. 

In  some  passages,  Paul  subordinates  knowledge  to 
love.  In  I  Cor.  viii:  1-3  for  instance,  where  he 
addresses  the  stronger  Christians  at  Corinth,  who 
think  they  all  have  knowledge.  He  says :  "Knowledge 
puffeth  up,  but  love  edifieth.  If  any  man  thinketh 
that  he  knoweth  anything,  he  knoweth  not  yet  as  he 
ougth  to  know;  but  if  any  man  loveth  God,  the  same 
is  known  by  him."  Love  conditions  mutual  under- 
standing between  man  and  his  God.  This  love  is 
fellowship  of  spirit.  A  still  more  striking  passage  is 
that  of  Philippians  iii :  8-10:  "Yea  verily,  and  I  call 
things  to  be  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowledge 
of  Christ  Jesus  my  Lord :  for  whom  I  suffered  the  loss 
of  all  things,  and  do  count  them  but  refuse  that  I  may 
gain  Christ,  and  be  found  in  him  not  having  a  right- 
eousness of  my  own,  even  that  which  is  in  the  law, 
but  that  which  is  in  faith  through  Christ,  the  right- 
eousness which  is  in  God  by  faith."  Compare  this 
with  such  a  passage  from  the  Mystery  Religions  as 
Corp.  Hermet.,  x.,  15:  "For  God  does  not  ignore  man. 


J2        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

but  thoroughly  knows  (^voapl^ei)  and  desires  to  be 
known  by  him.  For  this  alone  is  salvation  for  man, 
the  yvaxTL^  of  God."  The  question  which  naturally 
arises  is ;  was  Paul's  use  of  yvcaaL^  influences  by  the 
Mystery  religions,  or  can  it  be  traced  back  to  the  Old 
Testament. 

The  conception  which  the  prophets  of  the  Old 
Testament  had  concerning  knowledge  of  God,  was 
something  experimental.  Any  number  of  passages 
might  be  quoted  in  substantiation  of  this.  In  Isaiah 
xi :  2  we  read :  "And  the  spirit  of  Jehovah  shall  rest 
upon  him,  the  Spirit  of  wisdom  and  undertanding,  the 
Spirit  of  council  atid  might,  the  Spirit  of  knowledge 
and  the  fear  of  Jehovah" ;  Hosea  ii :  20 :  "I  will  even 
betroth  thee  unto  me  in  faithfulness  and  thou  shalt 
know  Jehovah."  In  view  of  Paul's  close  association 
with  the  Old  Testament  though,  it  is  useless  to  deny 
that  the  Apostle's  use  of  'yv(aai<;  was  influenced  by  the 
ideas  contained  in  the  Hebrew  words  "dath",  "Jehovah" 
But  on  the  other  hand  it  appears  equally  certain  that 
Paul  presupposed  a  knowledge  of  the  terms  and  its 
implications  on  the  part  of  his  hearers  through  the 
medium  of  the  Mystery-Religions. 

We  have  already  seen  that  for  the  Mystery-cults 
yv(ocn<;  was  the  medium  through  which  man  becomes 
deified.  It  is  also  true  of  these  cults  that  when  the 
knowledge  and  vision  yv(b(r<;L  teal  of  the  Divine  light 
is  received,  all  the  senses  of  the  body  are  dormant. 
The  vision  enlarges  the  whole  inner  life,  drawing  the 
soul  out  of  the  body  as  it  were,  and  transforming  it 
into  ovaCa.  Compare  this  with  a  passage  in  Deitrich's 
Eine  Mithrasliturgie,  p.  14:  "Gaze  upon  the  God... 


Leading  Conceptions  of  St.  Paul's  Thought  73 

and  greet  him  thus:  Hail,  Lord,  ruler  of  the  water. .  . 
potentate  of  the  spirit.  Born  again,  I  depart,  being 
exalted :  and  having  been  exalted,  I  die :  born  through 
that  birth  which  gives  life,  dissolved  into  death,  I  go 
that  way  which  thou  hast  appointed."  Reitzenstein 
refers  to  a  passage  in  Seneca,  where  he  tells  his  friend 
Lucilius,  that  he  is  not  only  improved  (emendari  but 
tranformed  (transfigurari)  and  that  this  has  come 
about  as  a  sudden  change,  which  of  course  implies  an 
inward  experience.  The  vision  of  Zosimus,  the  alchem- 
ist is  also  interesting  in  this  connection.  Zosimus 
mentions  a  priest  who  renewed  him  (^KULvovpyoovfie^  so 
that  he  became  pneuma.  See  Reitzenstein  H.  M.  R.  p. 
141.  We  may  compare  such  passages  with  the  lan- 
guage of  Paul,  for  example  in  2  Cor.  iii :  18 :  "But  we 
all  with  unveiled  face  beholding  as  in  a  mirror,  the 
glory  of  the  Lord,  are  transformed  into  the  same 
image,  from  glory  to  glory,  even  as  from  the  Lord,  the 
Spirit";  Philippians  iii:  21:  "Who  shall  fashion  anew 
the  body  of  our  humiUation  that  it  may  be  conformed 
to  the  body  of  his  glory."  We  may  conclude  with 
Kennedy  that  the  key  to  the  passage  in  2  Cor.  iii:  iS 
lies  in  the  words  ttoWtj  Trapprja-ia  in  the  beginning  of 
the  paragraph.  The  Apostle  has  been  charged  with 
concealing  something.  He  denies  the  charge  and  em- 
phasizes the  openness  of  the  Gospel,  which  he  con- 
trasts with  the  veil  on  Moses'  face,  the  veil  on  the 
heart  of  Isreal,  and  the  veiled  Gospel  in  the  minds  of 
unbelievers.  Concerning  the  passage  in  Philippians 
iii:  21,  the  tenth  verse  seems  to  suggest  a  background 
for  the  Apostle's  thought,  similar  to  the  Mystery-term- 
inology, quoted  above  from  Deitrich's  Eine  Mithras- 


74        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

liturgie.  In  2  Cor.  iv :  i6,  the  passage  where  the 
'spiritual  organism'  is  introduced,  are  found  these 
words :  "But  though  our  outward  man  is  decaying,  yet 
our  inward  man  is  renewed  day  by  day."  This  re- 
newal, of  course  stands  in  close  relation  with  the 
believer's  'pneumatic  life,'  which  finally  issues  in  the 
acfifia  TTvev/xaTLKo^;,  Reitzenstein  (H.  M.  R.  p.  177) 
makes  an  interesting  reference  to  an  idea  brought  out 
by  the  alchemist  Zosimus,  which  assigns  to  the  inner 
life  of  every  man  a  ^ajreti^o?   fcal  Trvev/jLartKo^;  avdpcDiro^* 

Before  proceeding  any  farther,  however,  it  is 
necessary  to  point  out  that  whatever  similarity  of 
thought  may  be  traced  out  between  Paul  and  the 
Mystery  Religions  on  this  point,  the  aim  of  the  two 
is  quite  different.  In  the  Mystery  Religion,  the 
emphasis  is  laid  on  the  quasi-magical  transmutation 
of  essence,  while  Paul  puts  in  the  foreground  the 
moral  significance  of  the  process.  Yet,  there  does 
appear  to  be  a  difficulty  regarding  the  Apostle's  state- 
ments concerning  the  aoj/ia  7rv€VfiaTLfc6<;.  In  such 
a  passage  as  Philippians  iii :  21,  we  observe  he  says 
Christ,  at  his  coming  is  to  transform  the  earthly  bodies 
of  believers.  This  will  result  in  assimilation  to  his 
crwfta,  the  characteristic  of  which  is  Bo^a.  "Even 
as  we  have  borne  the  image  of  the  earthly,  we  shall 
also  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly."  I  Cor.  xv :  49. 
But  certainly  the  idea  of  the  crw/xa  irvevixaTiKo^ 
is  based  upon  his  conception  of  the  exalted  Christ, 
which,  of  course,  immediately  takes  us  back  to  the 
vision  on  the  Damascus  road. 

The  two  passages  which  Reitzenstein  cites  in  sub- 
stantiation of  his  view  that  the  acoixa  TrvevfiartKO';  has 


Leading  Conceptions  of  St.  Paul's  Thought  75 

its  roots  in  the  Mystery  Religions,  (See  Poimandres  p. 
354),  show  very  little  evidence  of  the  Pauline  concep- 
tion. J.  Weiss  gives  several  extracts  which  afford  a 
great  deal  more  evidence.  In  Corp.  Hermet.,  xiii :  14, 
after  Tat  has  been  regenerated  he  inquires  whether 
his  transformed  o-w/xx  will  ever  be  dissolved.  He  is 
assured  by  his  father,  that  though  his  former  body  was 
subject  to  dissolution,  his  present  body,  coming  from, 
the  true  being  is  immortal.  "You  do  not  recognize 
that  you  are  now  6e6<;  and  a  child  of  the  One." 
Here  it  must  be  remarked,  however,  that  the  notion 
of  complete  transformation,  making  the  subject  a  god, 
finds  little  parallel  in  Paul's  thought.  The  other 
passage  is  in  an  opening  prayer  of  the  Liturgy  of 
Mithra.  After  the  initiate  has  addressed  the  elements, 
he  then  appeals  to  "my  perfected  body  .  .  .  formed 
by  a  glorious  arm  ...  in  the  world  which  is  unlighted, 
and  in  that  which  is  full  of  light."  Here  the  appeal 
of  the  prayer  is  made  before  the  regenerating  process 
has  begun,  but  as  Weiss  points  out,  in  these  passages 
we  get  the  notion  of  a  "supra  earthly  body." 

The  natural  inference  which  it  seems  can  be  drawn 
from  this  examination  of  facts  which  we  have  made 
•of  the  relation  of  Paul  to  the  Mystery  terminology, 
is  simply  this.  The  parallels  w^hich  exist  between  Paul 
and  the  Mystery  terminology  enable  his  hearers  to 
grasp  the  meaning  of  the  new  faith,  which  is  rooted 
in  Judaism,  but  which  has  fallen  into  new  linguistic 
molds  through  contact  with  contemporary  religions, 
with  which  they  are  acquainted. 


XIII 

Baptismal  Rites  of  Pagan  Religions 

LET  us  now  turn  to  an  examination  of  the  baptism- 
al rites  of  pagan  religions.  Rites  of  purification 
existed  in  all  ancient  religions.  In  the  Eleusinian 
mysteries,  the  bath  of  cleansing  in  the  sea,  aXaBe 
/jLvarat  played  a  prominent  part.  A  similar  rite  was 
observed  by  the  Orphic  cult.  Part  of  the  ceremonies 
connected  with  Isis  consisted  in  sprinkling  the  neo- 
phyte. Tertullian  distinctly  asserts,  (De  Bapt.,  5) 
that  the  idea  of  regeneration  was  associated  with  these 
ceremonies  of  purification,  but  our  knowledge  of  the 
rites  of  baptism  in  connection  with  the  Mystery 
Religions  is  very  meagre.  It  is  worthy  of  notice,  that 
an  examination  of  the  Mystery  literature  which  has 
come  down  to  us,  results  in  no  evidence  whatever  of 
baptism  'into  the  name'  of  any  of  the  Myster}^  deities. 
Heitmuller  and  others,  emphasize  the  fact  that  Paul 
associates  the  rite  of  baptism  with  the  death  and 
resurrection  of  Jesus,  and  would  compare  this  with 
the  idea  of  dying  to  live,  which  is  found  in  the 
Mystery  Religions.  But  the  evidence  is  very  scanty, 
and  besides,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  Pauline 
conceptions  of  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
and  the  corresponding  conceptions  in  the  Mystery 
rituals,    are   quite   different.      In   the    Paris    Papyrus 

76 


Baptismal  Rites  of  Pagan  Religions        yy 

(No.  47)  a  passage  is  pointed  out  by  Kennedy,  P. 
231,  in  which  it  is  possible  to  associate  airoOavelv 
directly  with  ^airTL^ecrdai.  Apollonius,  a  novice  in 
the  temple  of  Serapis  at  Memphis,  uses  the  words  in 
a  letter  addressed  to  his  spiritual  advisor,  Ptolemaeus. 
The  closing  words  of  the  letter  are :  kol  ov  hwdixeOa 
airodavelv,  Kal  LBr]<;  ore  fieWo^ev  awdrjvaL  Tore 
^aTTTL^coiJieOa.  Apollonius  has  just  reproached  Ptole- 
maeus and  the  gods  for  delaying  his  full  initiation, 
and  quotes  some  words  which  Ptolemaeus  had  used 
in  reference  to  a  warning  which  came  to  him  in  a 
dream.  Reitzenstein  (H.  M.  R.  p.  yy)  interprets  the 
words  *we  cannot  die'  of  Ptolemaeus'  warning,  that 
death  is  the  penalty  of  premature  initiation.  Then 
Apollonius  says:  "If  you  see  that  we  are  destined  to 
attain  salvation,  then  we  may  proceed  to  baptism." 
Reitzenstein  finds  a  parallel  to  this  in  the  case  of 
Lucius  of  Cenchreae,  where  the  spiritual  father  of 
Lucius  informs  him  that  it  is  death  for  those  who 
go  forward  to  initiation  without  the  call  of  the  god- 
dess. But  seeing  in  a  dream  that  salvation  is  destined 
for  Lucius,  he  admits  the  latter  to  the  initiation,  of 
which  baptism  is  the  preliminary  part.  Here  Reitzen- 
stein takes  aTTodavelva.s  synomonous  with  /SaTm^oyfieda 
but  this  is  the  only  trace  of  such  a  conception 
of  baptism  found  in  Hellenism,  as  Reitzenstein  him- 
self states.  Here  baptism  is  regarded  as  working  *ex 
opere  operato.'  But  Paul  has  no  such  conception  of 
the  rite.  For  Paul,  salvation  is  obtained  by  a  right 
relation  to  God  through  faith  in  Christ,  crucified  and 
risen  again  as  a  demonstration  of  the  marvelous  love 
of  God  manifested  towards  men.     In  Romans  v:   i, 


^. 


78        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

we  find  a  statement  of  all  that  is  necessary  for  salva- 
tion: "Therefore,  having  been  justified  by  faith,  we 
have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
through  whom  also,  we  have  obtained  access  into  the 
grace  in  which  we  stand."  AccordiaggJQr-^a4Al-,  ^God_ 
~  saved  us.  baptism  does  not  mevitablv  work  spiritual 
renewal.  We  are  not  saved  by  any  external  baptism, 
out  by  one  which  is  accompanied  by  new  birth.  In 
other  words,  baptism  is  not  the  inevitable  means  of 
salvation.  The  possession  of  the  Spirit  is  the  inevit- 
able condition  of  the  Christian  life.  "If  any  man 
have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  does  not  belong  to 
him,"  Romans  viii;  9.  In  the  Mystery  doctrine,  on 
the  contrary,  there  does  not  seem  to  be  any  hint  that 
the  Divine  irvev^a  is  ever  connected  with  the  ritual 
of  lustration. 

The  closest  analogy  to  Christian  baptism  which  can 
be  found  in  the  Mystery  Religions  is  the  taurobolium, 
already  referred  to.  The  taurobolium,  or  the  bath  of 
blood  put  the  idea  of  regeneration  in  the  foreground. 
Various  inscriptions  speak  of  the  baptized  as  'in 
aetemum  renatus.'  The  descent  into  the  pit  seems  to 
have  symbolized  the  burial  of  the  old  life,  and  the 
votary,  coming  up  from  the  bloody  baptism,  was 
feasted  as  a  god  and  spoken  of  as  'born  again  for 
eternity.'  Cornford  (From  Religion  to  Philosophy 
p.  198),  refers  to  this  rite  as  that  "passionate  sym- 
pathetic contemplation  (Oecopia')  in  which  the  spec- 
tator is  identified  with  the  suffering  God,  dies  in  his 
death,  and  rises  again  in  his  new  birth."  Some  have 
also  thought  that  a  formula  which  has  come  down 
to   us    from   Clement  of   Alexandria,     ex    rvfj^irdwov 


Baptismal  Rites  of  Pagan  Religions        79 

€(f>ayov  eK  Kfyu.  ^dXov  iKepi>o(f)6pr}cra^  vrro  rov  iraarov 
vTreSuu^  suggests  a  sacred  meal,  in  which  the  parti- 
cipant entered  into  communion  with  the  hving  deity. 
But  this  is  only  an  hypothesis.  Cumont,  (Oriental 
Religions,  p.  66ff.)  thinks  the  rite  originally  belonged 
to  the  worship  of  the  Persian  goddess,  Anahita,  who 
was  closely  associated  with  Mithra  in  the  religion  of 
the  Achaemenidae,  and  was  assimilated  to  Cybele  in 
Asia  Minor,  soon  after  the  middle  of  the  first  century. 
Here,  of  course,  the  evidence  is  scarcely  strong  enough 
to  warrant  us  in  using  it  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Mystery 
Religions  on  immortality  prior  to  Paul. 


XIV 
Sacrificial  Meals  in  Relation  to  the  Mystery  Religions 

A  THOROUGH  consideration  of  the  subject  of  sacra- 
mental meals  in  their  relation  to  the  Mystery 
"Religions  is  also  greatly  handicapped  by  the  lack  of 
evidence.  The  several  extant  fragments  we  possess, 
which  have  any  bearing  on  the  subject,  have  in  many 
cases  been  exaggerated.  The  Eleusinian  fragment 
preserved  by  Clement,  (See  Kennedy,  Paul  and  Myst. 
Rel.  p.  256),  is  interpreted  by  some  as  being  a  descrip- 
tion of  a  sacrament  in  which  the  initiate  drunk  from 
the  same  cup  as  the  goddess  Demeter.  This  fragment 
and  the  other  Clementine  formula,  already  referred 
to,  seem  to  indicate  that  these  actions  wxre  symbolical 
of  new  life,  but  there  is  no  explicit  evidence  that  they 
were  intended  to  be  sacraments.  The  passage  cited 
by  Dietrich,  (Eine  Mithrasliturgie,  p.  105)  ''lengthen- 
ing  out  a  life  of  purity  from  the  day  that  I  became 
an  initiate  of  the  Idaean  Zeus  and  a  herdsman  of 
night-roming  Zagreus,  a  celebrant  of  the  meal  of 
raw  flesh,"  is  in  all  probabiHty,  a  reference  to  the 
ancient  Dionysiac  orgies  in  which  the  votaries,  in 
their  frenzied  state  laid  hold  upon  the  sacrificial  victim 
and  devoured  it  raw. 

Dietrich  and  Heitmuller  have  collected  evidence  in 
support  of  the  idea  of  communing  with  the  god,  by 

80 


Sacrificial  Meals  8i 

feeding  upon  him.  Abundant  evidence  of  this  practice 
is  found  among  the  ancients,  especially  among  the 
Egyptians,  whose  rites  are  preserved  in  the  Papyrus 
texts,  (See  Eine  Mithrasliturgie  p.  lOO,  Heitmuller's 
Taufe  u.  Abendmahl  bei  Paulus  p.  40  ff.,  Frazer's 
The  Golden  Bough  II.  318  ff.)  In  many  of  these 
examples,  it  appears  that  the  primitive  peoples  re- 
garded the  god  as  being  present  and  sharing  in  the 
sacramental  meal  with  the  worshipers  but  even  in 
the  cases  where  the  worhipers  believed  they  were 
partaking  of  the  life  of  their  deity,  in  partaking  of 
the  sacrificial  animal,  it  would  be  very  difficult  to 
show  that  this  idea  entered  into  Paul's  conception  of 
the  Lord's  Supper. 

Dietrich  (Eine  Mithrasliturgie  p.  106),  holds  that 
Paul  taught  that  "Christ  is  eaten  and  drunk  by  the 
faithful  and  is  therefore  in  them,"  Heitmuller  thinks 
Paul's  idea  was  that  "simple  participation  in  the 
Lord's  Supper  produces  communion  with  and  in  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ,"  (Taufe  u.  Abendmal  bei 
Paulus).  According  to  Reitzenstein,  (H.  M.  R. 
p.  51),  Paul  gets  his  idea  of  the  Lord's  Supper  from 
a  magical  text  in  which  the  blood  of  Osiris  is  repre- 
sented as  a  loving  portion,  which  produces  a  spell  upon 
those  who  drink  it.  In  I  Cor.  xi :  23  we  have  Paul's 
own  account :  "For  I  received  of  the  Lord  that  which 
I  also  delivered  unto  you,  that  the  Lord  Jesus,  in  the 
night  in  which  he  was  betrayed,  took  bread,  and  when 
he  had  given  thanks  he  brake  it  and  said,  'This  is 
my  body  which  is  for  you :  this  do  in  remembrance 
of  me.'  In  like  manner  also  the  cup  after  supper, 
saying,  'This  cup  is  the  new  covenant  in  my  blood; 


82        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

this  do  as  often  as  ye  drink  it  in  remembrance  of 
me.  For  as  often  as  ye  eat  this  bread  and  drink  the 
cup,  ye  proclaim  the  Lord's  death  until  he  come.'  " 
Prof.  Percy  Gardner  of  Oxford  holds  that  the  words, 
"I  received  of  the  Lord  also  that  which  I  delivered 
unto  you,"  refer  to  a  vision  which  Paul  had  received. 
Most  exegetes,  however,  reject  this  view.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  but  what  Paul  means  that  he  is  practicing 
a  custom  which  has  been  insituted  by  the  Lord  Jesus 
himself.  For  Paul,  the  Lord's  Supper  was  a  sacrament 
thoroughly  ethical,  grounded  in  genuine  religious 
faith.  It  commemorated  Qirist's  death  and  announced 
his  death  to  the  world.  It  was  the  setting  forth  of  his 
death  in  symbolic  form  as  expiatory,  in  which  be- 
lievers participated  in  the  benefits  of  his  expiatory 
death,  and  in  which  believers  held  living  fellowship 
with  him  by  the  power  of  his  Spirit,  through  faith, 
and  in  which  believers  also  looked  forward  to  meet 
Christ  in  heaven. 

In  I  Corinthians  we  find  three  passages  which  throw 
light  on  Paul's  idea  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  I  Cor. 
x:  1-5,  x:  14-22,  xi:  17-34.  In  the  first  passage,  the 
Apostle  merely  reminds  them  that  the  chosen  people 
have  enjoyed  marvelous  privileges,  but  notwithstand- 
ing, they  fell  into  idolatry  and  impurity,  for  which 
reason  God  cast  them  oflF.  So  Christians  are  also 
capable  of  being  seduced  into  heathen  practices,  con- 
sequently, let  them  beware.  The  Lord's  Supper  and 
Baptism  are  typical  of  God's  favor  under  the  new 
covenant,  but  they  do  not  insure  acceptance  with  God. 
"Our  fathers  were  all  under  the  cloud,  and  all  passed 
through  the  sea  and  were  all  baptized  unto  Moses  in 


Sacrificial  Meals  83 

the  cloud  and  in  the  sea;  and  did  all  eat  the  same 
spiritual  food  and  did  all  drink  the  same  spiritual 
drink,  for  they  drank  of  a  spiritual  rock  that  followed 
them  and  the  rock  was  Christ."  The  Apostle  here 
merely  means,  that  the  Divine  provision  for  food  was 
no  safeguard  against  idolatry.  In  other  words,  the 
sacrament  does  not  work  ex  opere  operato,  as  seems  to 
be  implied  in  the  pagan  idea  of  'eating  the  god.' 

In  I  Cor.  x:  14-21  we  read:  ''Wherefore,  my  be- 
loved, flee  from  idolatry.  I  speak  as  to  wise  men; 
judge  ye  what  I  say.  The  cup  of  blessing  which  we 
bless,  is  it  not  a  communion  of  the  blood  of  Christ? 
The  bread  which  we  break,  is  it  not  communion  of  the 
body  of  Christ?  seeing  that  we,  who  are  many,  are 
one  bread,  one  body:  for  we  all  partake  of  the  one 
bread.  Behold  Israel  after  the  flesh:  have  not  they 
that  eat  the  sacrifices  communion  with  the  altar? 
What  say  I  then?  that  a  thin^  sacrificed  to  idols  is 
anything,  or  that  an  idol  is  anything?  But  I  say,  the 
things  which  the  Gentiles  sacrifice,  they  sacrifice  to 
demons  and  not  to  God :  and  I  would  not  that  ye 
should  have  communion  with  demons.  Ye  cannot 
drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord  and  the  cup  of  demons: 
ye  cannot  partake  of  the  table  of  the  Lord  and  the 
table  of  demons."  Here  the  Apostle  openly  charges 
with  idolatry  those  Christians  who  have  participated 
in  the  sacrificial  meals  of  the  pagans.  To  share  in 
the  table  of  the  Lord,  according  to  Paul,  means  to 
participate  of  the  bread  and  wine,  and  this  is  described 
as  communion  with  the  body  and  blood  of  Jesus.  But 
not  the  body  and  blood  of  Jesus  as  such,  is  partaken 
of  by  the  believers,  not  his  human  person  as  crucified 


84        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

on  the  cross.  We  never  find  Paul  speaking  of  'eating 
the  body'  and  'drinking  the  blood*  of  Christ.  This 
idea  is  wholly  lacking  in  Hebrew  thought.  Moreover, 
the  phrases,  'drinking  the  cup  of  demons'  and  'par- 
taking of  the  table  of  demons,'  appears  to  indicate 
that  Paul  regarded  the  pagan  gods  as  being  hosts  at 
the  sacrificial  meals.  This  harmonizes  with  a  passage 
in  the  Pseudo-Clementine  Recognitiones  (ii.,  71) 
quoted  by  Kennedy  p.  273.  Every  one  who  worships 
"those  whom  the  pagans  call  gods,  or  tastes  meat 
sacrificed  to  them"  is  a  "guest  of  demons,"  and  "has 
fellowship  with  that  demon  whose  aspect  he  has 
fashioned  in  his  mind,  whether  from  fear  or  love." 
There  is  no  clear  evidence,  then,  that  Paul  has  bor- 
rowed from  the  pagan  idea  of  the  sacrament.  The 
third  passage,  I  Cor.  xi :  23  flf.,  has  already  been  con- 
sidered. It  proves  conclusively,  that  Paul  derives  his 
authority  to  administer  the  Lord's  Supper  from  the 
words  and  actions  of  Jesus  himself. 


XV 

Conclusions 

IN  the  previous  part  of  this  paper  we  have  examined 
the  facts  regarding  St.  Paul  and  his  relation  to  the 
Mystery  Religions.  In  this  concluding  section  we  will 
endeavor  to  draw  the  conclusions  which  the  facts  seem 
to  warrant.  Ample  evidence  has  been  adduced  to 
show  the  relation  of  the  Mystery  Religion  to  Paul's 
environment.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the 
converts  of  Paul  were  reared  in  the  atmosphere  of 
the  Pagan  Mysteries,  it  seems  inevitable  that  the 
wide  awake  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  was  well  informed 
as  to  doctrine  of  these  Mysteries,  in  order  to  help 
his  converts  over  their  difficulties.  Sometimes  such 
words  as  yvcoo-L^i  reXeio?,  Tri^evftart/co?,  etc.,  were 
found,  which  Paul  recognized  were  capable  of  bearing 
real  spiritual  content,  and  thus  a  point  of  contact  was 
discovered  for  presenting  the  true  religion.  What  was 
true  regarding  separate  terms,  may  also  be  said  to 
have  been  true  occasionally  regarding  certain  groups 
of  ideas.  The  mystery  idea  of  transformation  by  the 
knowledge  of  God  seems  to  find  a  close  parallel  in 
Philippians  iii :  lo,  where  the  Apostle  says :  "That  I 
may  know  him,  and  the  power  of  his  resurrection,  and 
the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings,  becoming  conformed 
unto  his  death."  It  is  very  dangerous,  however,  to 
dogmatize  with  respect  to  how  far  Paul  was  influenced 

8s 


86        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

from  the  mystery  terminology,  for  it  may  safely  be 
said  that  the  dominating  conceptions  which  actuated 
the  Mystery  Religions,  were  different  from  those  in 
which  Paul  moved.  There  is  no  parallel  in  the 
mysteries  to  the  Cross  of  Christ,  as  it  figures  in  the 
Pauline  sense.  There  is  also  no  parallel  in  Paul's 
doctrine,  to  the  idea  of  union  with  deity  as  it  figures 
in  the  mysteries.  The  two- fold  element  of  faith, 
which  looms  up  so  large  in  Paul's  doctrine,  first,  faith 
on  the  part  of  the  individual  to  receive  the  promises  of 
an  almighty  and  an  all-loving  God,  and  second,  faith, 
on  the  part  of  the  surrendered  soul  to  appeal  to  God 
for  the  fulfillment  of  his  promises.  This  seems  to  be 
lacking  in  the  structure  of  the  Mystery  Religions.  For 
Paul,  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  did  not  work 
automatically,  whereas,  the  nearest  approach  to  these 
rites,  which  we  were  able  to  find  in  the  Mystery 
Religions,  had  a  magical  significance. 

The  center  of  Paul's  religious  history  is  rooted  in 
his  experience  on  the  road,  above  the  gates  of  Damas- 
cus. This  real,  vital  contact  with  the  'Lord  of  glory,' 
wrought  a  transformation  in  the  soul  of  the  Apostle, 
so  marvelous,  that  now  he  can  say,  he  is  'in  Christ* 
(2  Cor.  v:  17),  and  Christ  is  'in  him'  (Gal.  i:  16). 
His  experience  transcends  all  spatial  and  temporal 
forms,  it  is  an  ideal  relation  with  the  'risen  Christ', 
bearing  him  into  the  realm  of  the  Eternal  Reality, 
and  producing  such  a  life-enhancing,  after  value,  as 
to  impart  to  his  teachings,  a  vigorous  ethical  quality. 
Each  succeeding  vision  only  served  to  deepen  his 
"faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me  and  gave  him- 
self for  me"  (Gal.  ii :  20).    This  Ethical  Idealism  of 


Conclusions  87 

the  Apostle,  is  the  Divine  answer  to  faith,  impelled  by 
a  love,  responsive  to  the  redeeming  love  of  the  cross. 
"I  have  been  crucified  with  Christ  and  it  is  no  longer 
I  that  live  but  Christ  liveth  in  me,"  (Gal.  ii :  20).  This 
is  a  fellowship  which  involves  the  exercise  of  will,  and 
cannot  be  identified  with  the  idea  of  absorption  in  the 
deity,  which  is  found  in  the  Mystery  Religions.  Paul 
never  loses  sight  of  the  existence  of  the  independent, 
human  personality.  In  Romans  viii:  15-16,  he  says: 
"You  did  not  receive  the  spirit  of  bondage  again,  re- 
sulting in  fear;  but  you  received  the  spirit  of  adoption 
whereby  we  cry,  Abba,  Father.  The  Spirit  itself  bears 
witness  with  cur  spirit,  that  we  are  children  of  God." 
This  passage  is  the  key  to  the  Apostle's  conception  of 
our  relationship  to  God.  We  are  the  children  of  God. 
This  implies  intimate,  personal,  conscious,  free  rela- 
tionship, in  a  word,  it  is  an  idealistic  in  contrast  to 
a  pantheistic  relationship  to  God. 

Schweitzer  lays  a  very  pecuUar  emphasis  upon  the 
eschatology  of  Paul,  which  he  claims  arises  out  of 
his  conception  of  union  with  Christ.  In  his  book,  St. 
Paul  and  His  Interpreters,  he  points  out  the  contrast 
between  Paul's  conception  of  union  with  Christ,  which 
we  have  stated  above,  and  the  idea  in  the  Mystery 
Religions,  namely,  that  the  Divine  essence  passes  into 
the  soul  of  the  living  man,  by  means  of  gnosis  and  the 
vision  of  God.  He  then  goes  on  to  interpret  Paul's 
conception  in  the  light  of  his  theory  of  Consistant 
Eschatology.  The  point  which  interests  us,  is  the 
fact  that  Paul's  eschatology  is  not  due  to  the  influence 
of  the  Mystery  Religions.  The  Apostle's  idea  of 
union  with  Christ  may  be  said  to  be  a  willing  identifi- 


88        St.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions 

cation  with  the  death  of  Christ,  responsive  to  the  love 
of  the  cross,  accompanied  by  cessation  from  sin. 

Paul  certainly  had  in  mind  the  "glorious  consum- 
mation of  the  future,"  but  it  is  equally  certain  that 
he  presents  no  fixed  program  of  events  for  that  future. 
Death,  for  him,  was  a  passing  from  the  present  life 
into  the  presence  of  the  living  Lord.  Life  in  Christ 
meant  for  him,  continued  personal  existence  beyond 
the  confines  of  space  and  time,  in  conformity  with 
the  life  of  the  glorified  Lord.  "For  if  we  have  become 
united  with  him  in  the  likeness  of  his  death,  we  shall 
be  also  in  the  likeness  of  his  resurrection,"  Romans 

vi:   5. 

Our  investigation  has  resulted  in  the  discovery  that 

there  is  nothing  in  Paul  which  may  not  be  traced  to 
Judaism  or  the  vision  on  the  Damascus  road.  At  the 
beginning  of  our  investigation,  it  appeared  that  Paul's 
close  and  long  continued  contact  with  the  Mystery 
Religions  was  suggestive  of  early  Christianity  being 
influenced  by  them,  but  it  now  appears  that  even 
where  there  are  parallels  between  Paul  and  the 
Mystery  Religions,  he  has  used  the  mystery  termin- 
ology as  a  vehicle  to  convey  the  true  religion  to  hearers 
who  were  well  acquainted  with  that  form  of  speech. 


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